How To Watch German TV Online In Your Browser Or Mobile Device
photo by Stef Ming via CC license
Learning German with apps and self-study textbooks is a great way to start, but after a while translating isolated sentences and stuffing your brain with flashcards and grammatical explanations will not be enough anymore. Whether you start looking at German children’s books, easily written short stories or German novels, eventually you’ll have to expose yourself to more real-world German.
If you’re not the reading type, you can also learn German with on-demand TV series, German movies, or — as I’d like to show today — by watching German television channels.
A Brief Introduction To The German TV Landscape
In general, German television channels can be categorized within these two groups:
1. Öffentlich-rechtliche Sender (public service broadcasters)
img via Wikipedia / license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany
There are two big national German TV stations: ARD and ZDF. In addition to these, there are a variety of local or regional channels. All German public service broadcasts are funded through license fees paid by German viewers. Due to the non-commercial nature of these channels, you’ll find little to no advertising and a programming schedule which aims to share meaningful content instead of just whatever gets the most eyeballs.
See the map for a quick overview of the regional channels. (Hint: The R always stands for Rundfunk, the German word for broadcast, so you get Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Südwestrundfunk, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, etc.)
2. Privatsender (commercial broadcasters)
Whereas the public service broadcasters mostly focus on qualitative journalism, nature documentaries and other family-friendly programming, commercial broadcasters take care of the rest: dubbed blockbuster movies and TV series, cartoons, dubious talk shows, and a host of Spartensender (special-interest stations).
Well-known German private channels are RTL, Sat 1, Pro 7, Kabel Eins, Viva, VOX, N24 and many others.
For a complete list of German television channels (both public and private), see here.
How To Watch German TV On Your Laptop Or Mobile Device
Now that we’ve learned a bit about the German TV landscape, the obvious question is: how and where to watch? Sure, if you live in German you can just turn on the TV, but many German learners are living abroad, so let’s take a look where and how you can access German TV streams online.
Wonderful Media Libraries, Limited Access
The ARD has an excellent media library which you can access via ardmediathek.de (also available as Android and iOS app). By clicking on the LIVE link you can watch the ARD stream and various sub-channels directly in your browser. Also in the ZDF Mediathek, which comes with an Android and iOS app as well, there’s a link to the ZDF main live stream and its three sub-channels. Another great Mediathek with live streaming option is the one by Arte, a Franco-German TV network, which you can find on arte.tv (or as Android and iOS app).
Unfortunately, some of these streams are geo-restricted, which means that there’s always a chance this won’t work in your country.
What to do? You could try to use a VPN (virtual private network) connection that will allow you to circumvent some of these restrictions. For example, I’ve found that by using unblock-us I managed to get access to the ZDF live streams while abroad (and some but not all ARD and ARTE programs).
I’ve tried accessing some of these streams with Hola, a free VPN, but unfortunately that didn’t work. So if you want direct access to the Mediathek live streams (on-demand content often works also abroad), you may have to pay a monthly fee for a VPN service or look for alternatives.
Alternative Ways To Watch German Television Online
Another great service to watch many German TV stations for free is Zattoo (Android, iOS), but also here, without a VPN the chances of actually getting the streams to work is very slim.
If you don’t want to deal with setting up VPN connections, you could also use one of the following sites and services, some of them which operate in a kind of legal grey zone. Then again, using VPNs may also be considered a legal grey zone. As always, in case of doubt, check your local laws.
schoener-fernsehen.com
On this site you can watch a number of German TV stations (both public and private) directly in your browser. The streams aren’t high quality and the sites uses ads, but apart from that it’s workable. NOTE: This service is operating in a legal grey zone, according to CHIP, because it uses peer-to-peer streaming, and with all likelihood provides these streams without permission by the stations.
filmon.com
On this site you can watch five different German TV channels (Kika, ZDF, ZDF Info, Eurosport and Euronews), free of charge, without registering. Look in the menu for German TV. Stream quality is mediocre.
LocalTV (Android APP)
With the help of this app, you can watch a number of smaller and regional public service stations. Since this apps appears to be using the official streams of German TV stations not all links worked. Apart from that, the app is great and provides fast access to German TV.
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all information is for educational purposes only and doesn't constitute legal advice.
About the author:
André Klein was born in Germany, has grown up and lived in many different places including Thailand, Sweden and Israel. He has produced two music albums, performed and organized literary readings, curated an experimental television program and is the author of various short stories and non-fiction works.
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