ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a public broadcaster in Germany. The name is an abbreviation. It stands for Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. This can be translated as "Consortium of public-law broadcasting institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany". The company is made of different regional broadcasters. It provides one of the two (publicly funded) television programmes in Germany, amongst other programmes. The other publicly funded TV program is called Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF, in short).

It was founded in West Germany in 1950. It was made for common interests of the new, de-centralized post-war broadcasting services - in particular, the introduction of a joint television network.

ARD is made of the following regional broadcasters: BR, HR, MDR, NDR, Radio Bremen, RBB, SR, SWR, and WDR, as well as international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

They make a total of 54 regional and local radio stations and networks, two nationwide radio channels, and seven regional TV networks. During certain parts of the day some of these split even further.