Das Erste (The First) is the flagship of the national television program of the ARD community, the consortium of public broadcasters in the Federal Republic of Germany, based at Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich. Das Erste is operated jointly by the nine state broadcasters in accordance with their respective size. Since April 1, 1996, the official name and brand of the channel has been “Das Erste”, previously known as “ARD”.

Television in Germany was discontinued in the fall of 1944 due to the war. More than five years after the end of the war in Europe, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) in Hamburg began its first experimental broadcasts. The station was launched on December 25, 1952 as NWDR television. Reception of the program was initially limited to northwest Germany and Berlin.

In 1953, five state broadcasters took part in the joint program; the focus was on NWDR, from which NDR and WDR emerged in 1956. SFB was added in 1954, Radio Bremen in 1961, SR in 1963 and MDR and ORB in 1992, so that there were a maximum of 11 suppliers. In 1998, SWF and SDR merged to form SWR, and in 2003 SFB and ORB merged to form RBB.

From November 1, 1954, the station was finally operated as a joint program of the state broadcasters under the name Deutsches Fernsehen. From 1963, the name “Das Erste” also initially served as an informal differentiation from Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, which was launched at the time. In 1984, the station was officially renamed Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen.

From the very beginning, the declared target group of ARD television was also the people in the GDR. To this end, powerful transmitters were deliberately set up near the border. ARD's morning program was launched on September 4, 1961; it was aimed exclusively at people in the GDR.

On August 25, 1967, at the 25th International Radio Exhibition (IFA) in Berlin, color television was launched in Germany.
On September 1, 1995, the so-called night gap was closed, and since then Das Erste has been broadcasting around the clock.
Das Erste has been available as a live stream on the Internet since January 6, 2013.

Das Erste shows the news program Tagesschau several times throughout the day. In addition, the channel shows a variety of series, documentaries, talk shows, game shows and, alternating with ZDF, ARD reports on major sporting events such as the World and European Football Championships and the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Advertising may only be broadcast between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays. The commercial breaks last between one and three minutes and on average no more than 20 minutes of advertising may be broadcast per working day. No advertising may be shown on Sundays and national public holidays. However, this restriction on advertising time has been softened by the introduction of advertising-heavy competitions in programs such as soccer broadcasts after 8 pm. Critics describe this practice as surreptitious advertising. In addition, ARD broadcasts after 8 p.m. are often presented by certain advertisers (so-called sponsoring). For many viewers of public broadcasters, the question therefore arises as to what extent the strict course of collecting fees via a broadcasting fee of EUR 18.36 per month (as of 2021), which is collected from all households in Germany by the ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio contribution service, can still be justified by the gradual circumvention of the advertising ban.  (Source: Wikipedia)