NDR Fernsehen
NDR Fernsehen is the television programme ("third programme") of Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Its broadcasting area covers the federal states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony. Compared to the other third programmes of the public broadcasters, NDR Fernsehen is the programme with the widest reach, reaching around 7.37 million people nationwide every day in 2023. NDR Fernsehen is also very important in its own broadcasting area; with a market share of 8%, it was the third most popular programme behind ARD and ZDF in 2023. NDR's programme includes news, entertainment, educational programmes and sport in accordance with its public service remit. In two time slots, NDR broadcasts different regional programmes in the evening depending on the federal state (regional magazines).
Audience Share
2.6%
Ownership Type
public
Geographic Coverage
Regional (North Germany/ Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg)
Content Type
licence fee funded € 18.36 per month
Media Companies / Groups
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Ownership Structure
NDR Fernsehen is a television programme of Norddeutscher Rundfunk and part of public service broadcasting. NDR has no owner in the traditional sense. As part of the public broadcasting system, the broadcaster is financed by the public through a licence fee.
Voting Rights
The management of NDR consists of the director general and nine directors. According to the NDR State Treaty, the director general heads NDR and "consults with the deputy director and the directors on important matters". NDR also has two central committees: The NDR Broadcasting Council consists of 58 members, 11 of whom are delegated by the parties in the state parliaments. The remaining 47 members are delegated by various social, religious and cultural groups, such as trade unions, sports associations, the Child Protection Association, environmental organisations and employers' associations. The aim is to achieve a broad representation of society. The exact composition is set out in the NDR State Treaty. The main task of the Broadcasting Council is to monitor the programme mandate. In addition, the Broadcasting Council elects the director general, whom it also advises on programme matters. As NDR covers several federal states in its broadcasting area, it also has four state broadcasting councils, whose members are identical to those of the Broadcasting Council. The members of the Broadcasting Council from the respective federal states form the corresponding State Broadcasting Council. The NDR Administrative Board consists of twelve members elected by the Broadcasting Council. Six members must come from Lower Saxony and two each from Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schlewsig-Holstein. The Administrative Board oversees management, but not the content, as this is the responsibility of the Broadcasting Council. The NDR Broadcasting Council generally passes its resolutions by a simple majority of the votes cast, and voting is always open, even in elections. The Board of Directors passes its resolutions by a simple majority of the members present; as a rule, this is done openly by roll call. In the event of a tied vote, a motion is deemed to have been rejected.
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1965
Affiliated Interests Founder
In 1965, NDR launched a so-called "third television programme" together with Radio Bremen and SFB (later rbb). This was renamed "N3" in 1989. In 1992, SFB left the broadcasting network, while Mecklenburg-Vorpommern joined NDR in the course of reunification. NDR Fernsehen has only borne its current name since December 2001.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
has been the director general of NDR since January 2020. He began his career as an editor in 1985 and became NDR's programme director for radio in 2008. Before taking office, Knuth had already been Deputy director general since 2019. From 2012 to 2019, he was Managing Director of NDR Media GmbH. He is also a member of the supervisory board of several NDR subsidiaries such as Studio Hamburg GmbH.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
NDR Fernsehen receives its content from various NDR programme divisions, each of which has its own director. Therefore, there is no single position that bears overall responsibility for NDR Fernsehen. However, the broadcaster as a whole has two editors-in-chief whose responsibilities include, but are not limited to, NDR Fernsehen:
Editor-in-chief of NDR since May 2021.
Editor-in-chief of NDR since 2004. Together with Feuerbacher, he is responsible for the Information programme area, and they also oversee the NDR foreign and capital city studios.
Affiliated Interests other important people
Ahting is the Chairman of the NDR Board of Directors. He was head of the ver.di association in Lower Saxony and Bremen until 2023. Ahting is a member of the SPD and Chairman of the Lower Saxony Medical Service.
Knecht has been the Chairman of the NDR Broadcasting Council since 2023 and is also a member of the State Broadcasting Council for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the dbb (beamtenbund und tarifunion mecklenburg-vorpommern), of which he is currently the state chairman.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
The share of the total audience in per cent for the TV channels comes from AGF Videoforschung in cooperation with GfK 2023, retrieved via Meedia.de and refers to the average annual share of the total audience.
Financial data is shown as 'Missing data', as a breakdown of finances is only provided at broadcaster level. Individual data on broadcasters is not published.
Note on the transparency level:
As it is not possible to categorise the transparency level for public service media in terms of ownership structures, the availability of information on the supervisory and control bodies as well as information on their members and transparency with regard to corporate shareholdings were included in the assessment.