TV licensing in Germany

I was surprised to learn that in Germany you have to pay for a fee for every TV and radio receiver. The licence fee is paid monthly and not annually as in Britain. There has also been some uncertainty about whether to include PCs and smartphones capable of receiving broadcasts. It's all going to change in 2013 - Die Rundfunkgebühr in Deutschland soll auf eine neue Basis gestellt werden - according to a report I read today Ein Haushalt, eine Rundfunkgebühr You can also see a video report on the same subject.

You may come across the initials GEZ in relation to the licence fee. This is explained fully on http://www.gez.de/

Die Gebühreneinzugszentrale der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten ist eine Gemeinschaftseinrichtung der ARD-Landesrundfunkanstalten, des Zweiten Deutschen Fernsehen (ZDF) und des Deutschlandradio. Ihre Aufgabe besteht darin, die Rundfunkgebühren einzuziehen.

New TV Portal

It looks like ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL are cooperating on an new online portal which will allow users to watch a big selection of TV programmes and films without cost. For a German language report on these plans go to Private TV-Sender verbünden sich im Netz which is a report by stern.de

TV

We spent some time in our conversation class today talking about TV viewing habits but realised none of us knew much about the full range of programmes available in Germany or which ones are popular. I'm reasonably familiar with the range of channels and I have links to many on the TV page of Jeckylls Heft What I have only just discovered is the Wikipedia Portal: Fernsehen which gives at least some of the answers we didn't have this afternoon. The main themes covered are Bezahlfernsehen – Einschaltquote – Geschichte des Fernsehens – Geschichte des Fernsehens in Deutschland – Geschichte des Fernsehens in Österreich – Fahrgastfernsehen – GEZ – GIS – Öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk – Privatfernsehen – Fernsehwerbung – Medienwissenschaft.

I found the article on Fernsehwerbung instructive, particularly about the rules and limitations that apply.

A useful collection of links and information about the various broadcasters can be found at http://www.medienindex.de/ Another source I only found today is the University of Exeter's Media Index Deutschsprachige Medien im Internet which has separate sections for Fernsehen, Radio, Zeitschriften, Zeitungen. Worth exploring further I think.

Record German TV

Thanks to The German Professor for blogging about the OnlineTVRecorder. A free "Beginner" account allows up to 260GB of recorded television in your account. You can choose 15 programmes each month on the free account - from more than 60 channels. Downloads are only possible between 2300 and 0700 GMT which might be a bit of a pain. You also need to download a decoder program to get started.  For a fuller report see Free German TV with OnlineTVRecorder

Shop for new words

TV shopping channels are a great source for new vocabulary. The television shows communicate in fairly simple language and they are backed up by slick websites. Adverts and sales media are always useful for language learning. Because they seek to generate sales they readily get their message across ... not that I've ever been tempted to buy.

Take a look at HSE24 for a range of products. Click on TV if you want to see any of the programmes. Have you noticed how shoppen has replaced einkaufen in modern German? Do you shop online or buy from TV shopping channels?

News News News

One thing I want to do with this blog occasionally is pick up something in the headlines in Germany and make comment on it. Perhaps I'll copy a short extract so my readers can see if it interests them and I'll provide a link to the full piece.

How to keep up with the headlines? Turns out that's easy. Go to InfoLive - Das Nachrichten Portal You'll find the headlines from the main TV and radio stations. Not only that you'll find tabs for Magazines/Daily papers and much more.