About Baden TV

Baden TV

Baden TV is a private regional television broadcaster based in Karlsruhe, serving the central Upper Rhine region of Baden-Württemberg. On air since 1 May 2011, the channel produces a regional full programme for Karlsruhe (city and district), Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Pforzheim and the Enzkreis, centred on the news programme Baden TV Aktuell in the 6 p.m. primetime slot. Since November 2016, a second service, Baden TV Süd, has covered the Freiburg region of southern Baden. The channel broadcasts in SD and HD via digital cable, satellite and livestream.

Overview

Baden TV GmbH is a private regional broadcaster whose programme type is a regional full programme (Vollprogramm). The managing director is Andreas Eisinger, with Frank Hornuff as programme director. The channel's shareholders include Gottfried Greschner (chairman of the software company init), J. Esslinger GmbH & Co. KG (publisher of the Pforzheimer Zeitung), b.i.g. gruppe-management GmbH, Hoepfner Bräu Friedrich Hoepfner Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and Günter Pilarsky — a mix of IT, publishing, brewing and private investors characteristic of German regional media ownership.

History

Baden TV's lineage in Karlsruhe television goes back to 1 January 1995, when TV Baden launched as a regional channel for the central Upper Rhine (cable and terrestrial). In September 1997 it was renamed B.TV Baden and expanded into a statewide chain: on 21 June 1998 B.TV Württemberg launched from a new broadcast centre in Ludwigsburg, and the group styled itself the "Landessender Baden-Württemberg" — a title the SWR had prohibited by August 2000. From July 2000 the channel was receivable Europe-wide via Astra analogue, and from February 2001 throughout Baden-Württemberg on cable. After the insolvency of shareholder Kinowelt Medien AG in December 2001 and collapsing TV advertising in 2002, founder Bernd Schumacher filed for B.TV's insolvency on 31 July 2002. The licence was transferred to Thomas Hornauer; on 22 January 2003 the operation was relaunched as BTV-4U from Ludwigsburg only, and the summer of 2004 saw the final non-renewal of the cable licence — B.TV ceased operations at the end of December 2004.

Karlsruhe's regional television continued with R.TV (1 September 2003 – 31 July 2011), operated by Fernsehen aus Karlsruhe GmbH / Regional-TV Karlsruhe AG (95 percent owned by Kübler Verlag), which reached about 319,000 viewers in its cable area with a regional magazine looped from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Baden TV launched on 1 May 2011 as the successor, taking over R.TV's programme and coverage area. In November 2016 the company founded Baden TV Süd, extending coverage to Freiburg, Emmendingen, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, the Ortenaukreis, Lörrach and Waldshut — the area previously served by TV Südbaden, which had ceased operations in January 2015 for financial reasons. A dedicated Freiburg newsroom was established alongside the Karlsruhe headquarters, with both live news programmes (Baden TV Aktuell and Baden TV Süd aktuell) produced Monday to Friday in the Karlsruhe studio.

Programming

The schedule is built around:

• Baden TV Aktuell: the news programme, live Monday to Friday, forming the 6 p.m. primetime focus.
• Baden TV Süd aktuell: the southern edition for the Freiburg region.
• Baden TV Magazine: magazine formats with various focal points — business, culture, sport, lifestyle and regional events.

The full-programme format means the channel fills the day with regional content, repeats and service programming, rather than operating as a window within a national schedule.

Three Decades of Karlsruhe Commercial Television

Baden TV's history encapsulates the turbulence of commercial regional television in southwestern Germany. TV Baden (1995) was a straightforward Karlsruhe city-region channel. Its successor B.TV pursued a far grander vision: founder Bernd Schumacher built a statewide chain, launching B.TV Württemberg from Ludwigsburg in 1998, claiming the title "Landessender Baden-Württemberg" (forbidden by the SWR in 2000), broadcasting Europe-wide via Astra analogue from 2000 with a ten-metre dish beside the Ludwigsburg studios, and feeding the whole state's cable from 2001. The ambition outran the economics: after the Kinowelt Medien AG insolvency in December 2001 and the advertising collapse of 2002, Schumacher filed for insolvency in July 2002. The licence passed to Thomas Hornauer, the operation shrank to Ludwigsburg as BTV-4U in January 2003, and the cable licence was finally not renewed in summer 2004 — the end of B.TV.

R.TV (2003–2011), backed 95 percent by Kübler Verlag, returned to the sustainable model: a Karlsruhe-focused regional magazine, looped evenings and repeated mornings, reaching some 319,000 viewers in its cable area with a daily reach of around 60,000 per a 2007 TNS Infratest study. Baden TV (2011) inherited this footprint and professionalised it, adding the Freiburg southern service in 2016. Each generation learned from the last: statewide ambition failed; disciplined regional focus survived.

The Baden TV Süd Expansion

The November 2016 founding of Baden TV Süd was both an expansion and a rescue. TV Südbaden, the Freiburg region's station, had ceased operations in January 2015 for financial reasons, leaving southern Baden — Freiburg, Emmendingen, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, the Ortenaukreis, Lörrach and Waldshut — without a dedicated television service. Baden TV applied for the area, was licensed by the LFK, and launched the southern service with its own Freiburg newsroom while producing both live evening news programmes (Baden TV Aktuell and Baden TV Süd aktuell, Monday to Friday) from the Karlsruhe studio.

The expansion made Baden TV a two-region broadcaster covering much of the former state of Baden — from the Palatinate border to the Swiss frontier — and demonstrated a consolidation logic now common in German regional TV: stronger stations absorbing the coverage areas of failed ones, sharing studios and technology while maintaining separate editorial identities.

Baden TV's northern service covers Karlsruhe (city and district), Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Pforzheim and the Enzkreis; Baden TV Süd covers the Freiburg region's city and rural districts. Reception is via digital cable, satellite and livestream, in SD (576i) and HD (1080i). The audience is the population of central and southern Baden — one of Germany's most economically dynamic regions, home to Karlsruhe's technology cluster (KIT), the Baden-Baden media and spa industry, and the Black Forest tourism economy.

Ownership

Baden TV GmbH of Karlsruhe is owned by a consortium including Gottfried Greschner, J. Esslinger GmbH & Co. KG (Pforzheimer Zeitung), b.i.g. gruppe-management GmbH, Hoepfner Bräu and Günter Pilarsky. Andreas Eisinger is managing director; Frank Hornuff is programme director. The supervisory authority is the Baden-Württemberg State Authority for Communication (LFK).

Digital Presence

Baden TV operates the website baden-tv.com with a livestream and a media library, distributes reports via YouTube and social media, and is listed in electronic programme guides. The Freiburg newsroom gives the southern service its own digital identity within the shared platform.

Market Position

Baden TV is the product of three decades of commercial regional television in Baden-Württemberg — from TV Baden through the ambitious, ultimately insolvent B.TV chain and the Karlsruhe-focused R.TV to today's two-service operation. Its shareholder structure, combining regional publishing (Pforzheimer Zeitung), IT entrepreneurship and traditional Baden industry (Hoepfner brewery), reflects the region's economic profile. In the Karlsruhe media market it competes with the SWR's regional programming, the Badische Neueste Nachrichten newspaper group and digital portals; in the south, with the Badische Zeitung's stronghold. The 2016 expansion into the former TV Südbaden area demonstrated both the fragility of standalone southern-Baden television and Baden TV's capacity to consolidate the market.

Technical Reach

Baden TV's own media data states that the channel reaches more than 95 percent of the population in its licence area via cable and satellite — some 1.3 million people can receive it on television — and that it is additionally distributed Europe-wide via the Astra satellite (the reach figures cite the Baden-Württemberg statistical office, 2020).