ZDF

The SPD-led states of Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony, and Hesse appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, which on 28 February 1961 in the First Broadcasting Judgment blocked the plan. While building and maintaining telecommunications infrastructure, such as television transmitters, is a responsibility of the federal government under article 87f of the Basic Law, the constitution does not extend these duties to running a television or radio broadcaster. Under article 30, any power or duty not explicitly assigned to the federal government is reserved for the states. Therefore, the court ruled only the states had the right to set up a television broadcaster. (Conversely, the same decision supported new longwave broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, which had been established by the federal government in November 1960; its focus was on external broadcasting and therefore under the federal government's remit to conduct foreign relations.)

After this decision, in March 1961, the states decided to establish a central nonprofit public television network independently of Adenauer's effort. On 6 June 1961, the state premiers signed at a premiers' conference in Stuttgart the interstate agreement on the "establishment of the public institution Second German Television". On 1 December 1961, though not all states had ratified the agreement, it went into force in the states that had done so (Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate). The last state, Bavaria, filed the instrument of ratification on 9 July 1962.

The station began broadcasting from Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main on 1 April 1963, with a speech by the first director general (Intendant), Dr. Karl Holzamer. The channel broadcast its first programme in colour in 1967. In 1974, ZDF moved its base of operations to Mainz-Lerchenberg, after briefly being located in Wiesbaden. From 5 October 1996 ZDF broadcasts 24 hours a day.

As ZDF is a channel, not a network, the channel is broadcast throughout Germany, with no regional variations or affiliates, using a number of signal repeaters. ZDF transmitters broadcast a digital signal. Analog signals were gradually phased out, a process which lasted from 2002 to 2008.[4] ZDF does not run any transmitters itself. Throughout the analogue days, all ZDF transmitters were run by the Deutsche Bundespost which was later privatised as Deutsche Telekom's subsidiary T-Systems Media Broadcast. (This is in contrast to the other public German broadcaster, ARD, which owns its main transmitters.) ZDF was not previously allowed to use ARD's transmitters. ZDF has used both ARD and Telekom transmitters since changes to the law in the 1990s, and since the digital switchover.

ZDF has also been relayed by cable since the days of the first cable pilot projects.

The first Europe-wide satellite broadcast via Astra 1C began in August 1993 during the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA – "International Broadcasting Exhibition") in Berlin. In the same decade, these new technologies were used to enable digital broadcasting of ZDF. Today, ZDF is available free-to-air throughout Europe on Astra 19.2°E.

Norbert Himmler

Administratively, ZDF is headed by a director general (Intendant), who is elected by the ZDF Television Council, the composition of which is in turn determined by "societally relevant groups" named in the ZDF Treaty.

Directors General since the start of ZDF:

• 1963–1977: Karl Holzamer
• 1977–1982: Karl-Günther von Hase
• 1982–2002: Dieter Stolte
• 2002–2012: Markus Schächter
• 2012–2022: Thomas Bellut
• 2022–present: Norbert Himmler

The supervising board supervises the work of the intendant. They pay special attention to the budget. The supervising board has 14 members:

• Five representatives of the federal states
• One representative of the federal republic of Germany
• Eight independent members (not allowed to work for the government or other public entities)

The Television Board supervises ZDF and authorizes the budget. They also elect the Director General. The board has 60 members:

• Sixteen representatives of the states of Germany
• Two representatives of the federal republic of Germany
• Two representatives of the Protestant churches
• Two representatives of the Catholic Church
• One representative of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
• 21 representatives of selected civil society groups
• 16 members nominated by the federal states, representing different social causes

• aspekte (1965–present)
• Das Blaue Sofa (2003–present)
• Das Literarische Quartett (1998–2006, 2015–present)

• 37 Grad (1994–present)
• Alexander the Great (2014)
• Die Deutschen (2008/2010)
• Terra X (1982–present)
• Terra Xpress (2011–present)
• ZDFzeit (2012–present)
• ZDF-History (2000–present)

• das aktuelle sportstudio (1963–present)

	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Annual average
1990[9]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	28.8%
1991[10]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	25.6%
1992[11]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	22.0%
1993[12]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	18.0%
1994[13]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	17.0%
1995[14]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	14.7%
1996[15]	14.7%	15.2%	13.6%	13.1%	13.6%	17.4%	15.8%	13.7%	13.1%	13.3%	14.8%	14.2%	14.4%
1997[16]	14.6%	14.6%	13.4%	12.4%	12.8%	12.9%	12.7%	13.2%	13.3%	12.4%	13.7%	14.4%	13.4%
1998[17]	13.9%	15.3%	13.0%	12.3%	12.5%	17.4%	14.2%	12.8%	12.1%	13.1%	13.1%	13.3%	13.6%
1999[18]	14.2%	14.3%	14.0%	12.4%	12.1%	12.6%	13.2%	12.6%	12.0%	13.0%	13.4%	13.8%	13.2%
2000[19]	14.2%	13.8%	13.4%	11.6%	12.3%	15.3%	13.7%	13.3%	13.0%	12.7%	12.8%	13.2%	13.3%
2001[20]	13.2%	13.3%	13.1%	11.3%	11.7%	12.2%	14.2%	13.7%	12.5%	13.5%	13.8%	13.8%	13.0%
2002[21]	14.4%	15.5%	13.4%	12.4%	12.7%	16.4%	13.9%	14.1%	12.3%	13.1%	13.2%	13.9%	13.8%
2003[22]	13.9%	13.6%	13.7%	12.5%	12.3%	12.5%	13.9%	13.5%	12.3%	13.0%	13.2%	13.7%	13.2%
2004[23]	14.1%	13.9%	12.9%	12.5%	12.5%	14.8%	15.1%	15.9%	12.8%	12.7%	12.9%	13.9%	13.6%
2005[24]	14.0%	14.2%	13.7%	13.4%	12.7%	13.7%	14.0%	13.2%	13.3%	12.9%	13.2%	13.6%	13.5%
2006[25]	13.2%	14.4%	13.6%	13.1%	12.3%	16.9%	15.7%	12.4%	12.4%	12.5%	13.3%	13.5%	13.6%
2007[26]	14.2%	13.5%	13.0%	12.0%	12.1%	12.5%	12.6%	12.3%	12.5%	12.8%	13.2%	13.4%	12.9%
2008[27]	13.5%	12.9%	13.4%	12.2%	11.6%	17.6%	12.1%	13.6%	12.3%	12.7%	12.8%	12.9%	13.1%
2009[28]	14.3%	13.2%	12.7%	12.0%	11.7%	12.5%	11.9%	12.6%	12.3%	12.2%	11.7%	12.6%	12.5%
2010[29]	13.1%	13.8%	12.5%	11.3%	11.9%	16.7%	13.7%	11.9%	11.4%	12.4%	11.7%	12.3%	12.7%
2011[30]	12.9%	13.0%	13.0%	11.7%	11.3%	12.0%	12.9%	10.7%	11.4%	11.7%	11.9%	12.5%	12.1%
2012[31]	12.6%	12.7%	12.5%	11.1%	12.1%	15.5%	12.8%	13.0%	11.3%	12.5%	12.0%	12.7%	12.6%
2013[32]	13.6%	13.5%	13.1%	12.9%	12.9%	12.0%	12.2%	12.5%	12.8%	12.7%	12.7%	12.5%	12.8%
2014[33]	13.4%	15.1%	12.3%	12.7%	12.0%	17.6%	14.8%	11.6%	12.5%	12.3%	12.3%	12.7%	13.3%
2015[34]	14.2%	12.9%	12.8%	12.2%	12.1%	12.7%	12.3%	12.1%	12.1%	12.0%	12.1%	12.3%	12.5%
2016[35]	13.2%	12.6%	12.9%	12.6%	12.0%	17.1%	13.3%	14.3%	11.9%	11.9%	12.4%	12.5%	13.0%
2017[36]	13.9%	13.3%	13.0%	12.5%	12.6%	13.2%	13.0%	13.1%	12.9%	12.4%	13.5%	13.1%	13.0%
2018[37]	14.1%	14.6%	13.9%	13.4%	13.1%	16.9%	15.5%

The average viewer age is 62 years (as of 2016).[38]