Besides several entertaining shows, ARD went political in 1957 when it launched its first political TV magazine, Panorama. The programs were coordinated by the Programmdirektion based in Munich. The new channel consisted of jointly-produced shows such as the nightly news programme Tagesschau (on the air since 26 December 1952), as well as broadcasts produced individually by ARD member stations. It was West Germany's only television channel prior to the establishment of ZDF in 1963. Nationwide transmission began on 1 November 1954 within the ARD framework, under the name Deutsches Fernsehen ('German Television'). The regular NWDR television service started on 25 December 1952. The channel's first experimental broadcast was on 27 November 1950 as the TV channel of the then NWDR, which in 1956 split into NDR and WDR.

In colloquial speech, the station is usually called Erstes Programm ('First Channel'), or by its metonym, ARD. Since 1996, the official brand is Das Erste the full name Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ( First German Television) is still used before every major news edition. The channel was officially launched on 25 December 1952 as NWDR-Fernsehen and renamed to Deutsches Fernsehen in 1954. Das Erste is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are members of the ARD. (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)ĭas Erste ( German: 'The First') is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany.

Mediathek daserste