WDR Fernsehen

WDR Fernsehen
	Logo used since 2016
Country	Germany
Broadcast area	North Rhine-Westphalia, also distributed nationally
Headquarters	Cologne, Germany
Programming
Picture format	1080p HDTV; (downscaled to 720p HDTV and 16:9 576i for the DTT and SDTV feeds, respectively)
Ownership
Owner	Westdeutscher Rundfunk
History
Launched	17 December 1965; 58 years ago
Former names	Westdeutsches Fernsehen (1965–1988); West 3 (1988–1994)
Links
Website	http://www.wdr.de/tv/
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television	North Rhine-Westphalia:; Channel 3
Streaming media
WDR.de	Watch live
Ziggo GO (Netherlands)	ZiggoGO.tv (Europe only)
Horizon	Horizon.tv (Switzerland only)

WDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air television network owned and operated by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and serving North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of the seven regional "third programmes" television stations that are offered within the federal ARD network.

History

The station began broadcasting on 17 December 1965, as Westdeutsches Fernsehen (WDF), changing its name to West 3 in 1988, before settling for WDR Fernsehen in 1994.

Originally airing only in North Rhine-Westphalia, the channel has become available across Germany with the advent of Cable TV and satellite television. The station is also available free-to-air across Europe via Astra 19.2°E.

In November 2013, the channel faced a graphical rebrand.

News sub-regions

WDR Fernsehen operates eleven sub-regional opt-out services, each broadcasting a 30-minute local news programme entitled Lokalzeit at 19.30 each Monday to Saturday evening together with a shorter, 5-minute bulletin at 18.00 on Mondays to Fridays: