Phoenix (stylised as ) is a German
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
television channel which is operated jointly by public-service broadcasters
ARD and
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
. It broadcasts documentaries, news, special events coverage and discussion programmes. Phoenix's headquarters are in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
, the former West German capital.
On November 15th 2022, Phoenix closed its
SDTV
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
feed across its cable and satellite feeds, but the SD feed can still be received via an antenna.
Programming
Phoenix broadcasts a
deaf-subtitled version of the
Tagesschau, ARD's flagship news broadcast, and ZDF's premier news broadcast
Heute-Journal
''heute-journal'' (roughly ''Today's Journal'') is a television news magazine broadcast on ZDF, a national German television network.
History
The programme premiered on 2 January 1978 as a late weekday evening 20 minute program. Originally, ...
, in
German Sign Language
German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache (DGS), is the sign language of the deaf community in Germany, Luxembourg and in the German-speaking community of Belgium. It is unclear how many use German Sign Language as their main language; Ga ...
.
The channel's flagship news broadcast is ''Der Tag'' ("The Day"), which airs from 11:00 pm to midnight. Its length enables extended reports and interviews to be included.
The show ''Vor Ort'' ("On Scene") includes live coverage of political events, public lectures by important personalities, press conferences and assemblies of the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
and
Bundesrat.
Daily talk shows like ''Phoenix Runde'' (Phoenix Roundtable) with Alexander Kähler, ''Unter den Linden'' with Michaela Kolster or Michael Hirz, discuss current topics with experts or politicians.
As a benchmark in coverage, a "
Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
"-like show, ''Internationaler Frühschoppen'' is broadcast Sunday at 12 noon when the ARD's ''Presseclub'' is not broadcast.
The series "Historische Debatten" ("Historical Debates") and "Historische Ereignisse" ("Historical Events"), with journalist Helmut Illert, examine important topics relating to the development of the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
.
Phoenix is comparable to the American channel
C-SPAN or the British
BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliamen ...
, because they also cover government and national politics.
Creation
The creation of Phoenix is credited to the former chancellor
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
, who wanted to create a "European Parliamentary Channel". However, the idea was rejected due to criticism by the public channels (ARD and ZDF) and suspicion that political pressure from Kohl could lead to a "Helmut-Kohl-Channel".
The real idea for "Phoenix - Der Ereignis- und Dokumentationskanal" ("Phoenix - the current affairs and documentary channel") came from viewers of ARD and ZDF, who wanted a "media-political correction of faults in the system of information transfer". This created the opportunity to create a "Parliamentary Channel", with the aim of increasing credibility and satisfying consumer demand.
Private channels (
RTL and
Sat. 1) criticized the creation of Phoenix because they were at the time creating their own news channels (
n-tv
n-tv is a German free-to-air television news channel owned by the Bertelsmann Media's RTL Group. n-tv broadcasts news and weather every hour and half-hour in the morning. It also broadcasts magazine shows and documentaries.
History
n-tv beg ...
and
N24 respectively).
The headquarters of Phoenix were provisionally situated in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
. However, in 2000, the headquarters were relocated to studios in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
.
Phoenix's highest ratings to date were in August 2006, when it had 1.0% viewer share. With about 4.5 million viewers, it had more viewers than N-TV and N24.
Alignment of programming
Phoenix's stated aim is it to create "balance of the shortening of information, which are seen in news and magazines on television". The programming should be a "truthful illustration of the reality in correspondence with the constitutional order of the funded broadcast and television stations in Germany". The target is fulfilled with current reportages and documentaries from the vast archive of ARD and ZDF, as well as international productions from
Discovery Channel and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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