About Kiel TV

Kiel TV

Kiel TV is a citizen-operated public-access television channel based in Kiel, the capital of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the television arm of the Offener Kanal (Open Channel) Kiel, one of several regional media hubs run by the Offener Kanal Schleswig-Holstein, a public-law institution dedicated to giving ordinary residents free access to the airwaves. Since a 2026 rebranding of the state's open channels, the station also operates under the umbrella name OKSH mediaHub Kiel. The channel broadcasts on the Kiel cable network and streams worldwide online, carrying programmes made by citizens, associations, and volunteer editorial groups rather than by professional broadcasters.

Overview

Kiel TV works on a principle that sets it apart from almost every other television outlet in northern Germany: anyone who lives in the reception area can apply for airtime, receive training, and produce their own television shows. The channel provides studios, cameras, and editing equipment free of charge and instructs users on how to operate the technology. Editorial groups formed by citizens shape much of the schedule, and the station's staff of coordinators, media assistants, student workers, trainees, and volunteers support rather than commission the programming. Alongside television, the same institution runs the local radio service Kiel FM, which went on the air on 31 May 2002.

In May 2026 the Offene Kanäle of Schleswig-Holstein underwent a relaunch under which the regional institutions were renamed "OKSH mediaHubs". The Kiel television studio was rebuilt and expanded as part of this process, and the channel's mission was broadened to include newer media formats such as video podcasts, additional media-literacy programmes, and so-called "Freiraum" laboratories for testing open-source technologies. The classic citizen-television model, however, remains the heart of the operation.

History

The legal roots of Kiel TV reach back to the end of 1989, when a revision of Schleswig-Holstein's state broadcasting act created the statutory framework for open channels as institutions of the Unabhängige Landesanstalt für das Rundfunkwesen (Independent State Media Authority for Broadcasting, ULR). An appointee for the open channel project took up his post in October 1989, and after an initial studio without transmission capability was built in Kiel's Lerchenstraße, the Offener Kanal Kiel launched its broadcasting operation from a studio on Hamburger Chaussee on 16 December 1991. Its television programme was distributed in the Kiel broadband cable network of the Deutsche Post (later Deutsche Telekom) on cable channel 9.

Kiel was the first open channel in Schleswig-Holstein and the first institution of what would later become the OKSH. Between 1992 and 1997 three further open channels were launched in the state — radio in Lübeck, television in Flensburg, and radio in Heide with an outlying studio in Husum. On 15 September 2006 the Offener Kanal Schleswig-Holstein was reconstituted as an independent public-law institution (Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts), with its seat in Kiel; Henning Fietze has headed the institution since 1 August 2021.

Television service under the name Kiel TV began with the channel itself in December 1991. In 2008 the station added a worldwide online livestream, extending its reach beyond the Kiel cable footprint. The radio sibling Kiel FM started in 2002. The 30th anniversary of the Schleswig-Holstein open channels was celebrated in April 2022 with a festive event in Kiel, at which political and media figures highlighted the channels' role in safeguarding freedom of expression and promoting media competence.

The May 2026 relaunch marked the most significant structural change in the channel's recent history. The renaming from "Offener Kanal" to "mediaHub" was driven by acceptance considerations: the new designation is meant to signal that the institutions offer more than classic radio and television slots, embracing podcasts, media education, and digital experimentation. The Kiel television studio was modernised and enlarged during this transition.

Programming

The radio and television programmes of the Kiel media hub are produced by citizens who have registered to use the facilities, some of whom organise themselves into editorial groups. Airtime on Kiel TV is open to everyone who has signed up as a user, though some slots are permanently allocated. Applicants for a fixed slot must first have produced programmes regularly and delivered them on time for the agreed broadcast date — a requirement that ensures a baseline of reliability while keeping the access model intact.

The result is a schedule that reflects the interests of the city's residents rather than commercial logic: local cultural programmes, debates, music shows, documentation of civic events, and formats produced by associations, schools, and community initiatives. The model is consciously educational. Volunteers learn camera work, editing, and moderation by doing, and the station's training and lending service gives them professional-grade tools without charge.

Kiel FM, the radio counterpart, operates on the same participatory principle. Its claim at launch in 2002 was "Alles ist drin" ("Everything's in it"), changed in 2013 to "Die Stimme, die ich kenn'" ("The voice I know") and again in 2018 to "Einmalig anders" ("Uniquely different"). The station voice of Kiel FM is Leif Prengel.

Coverage and Audience

Kiel TV is transmitted on the Kiel cable network, serving the city of Kiel and other localities within the footprint of the Kiel cable system. Since 2008 the programme has also been available as a global online livestream, so viewers anywhere with an internet connection can watch. As a non-commercial citizen channel, Kiel TV is not measured by commercial audience ratings, and the station publishes no reach figures; its significance lies in participation — the number of citizens who produce, rather than merely consume, local media — and in media-literacy outcomes across the region.

The open channels of Schleswig-Holstein also serve as local outposts for media-competence funding: in 2023 the OKSH distributed a total of 570,000 euros in state funds for media-literacy projects, alongside its own educational offerings such as the media-competence festival.

Ownership and Funding

Kiel TV is operated by the Offener Kanal Schleswig-Holstein AöR, a public-law institution of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, which also runs the media hubs in Lübeck, Flensburg, and on the West Coast (Westküste) as well as a dedicated media-competence department. The institution is financed through state broadcasting contributions and governed by state law, notably the state OK Act that codifies its tasks and financial framework. Because it is constituted as a public-law body, it operates independently of commercial ownership and political direction — a status that officials have described as exemplary for open channels in Germany.

The OKSH board, headed by Henning Fietze since 2021, oversees all four hubs. The Kiel hub's team comprises coordinators, media assistants, work-study students, trainees, and young people doing their voluntary social year (FSJ).

Digital Presence

The OKSH maintains its central online presence at oksh.de, the official web address of the institution, which also hosts information about the Kiel media hub. Kiel TV's programming is carried on the global livestream launched in 2008, and the hub's production infrastructure — studios on the premises and portable equipment for off-site shoots — is documented through the OKSH's online channels. The channel's social media and video platforms serve as archives and distribution windows for citizen-produced programmes, and since the 2026 relaunch the mediaHub concept explicitly includes online-first formats such as video podcasts.

Wikipedia's article on the channel identifies oksh.de as the institutional website, while the OKSH itself has published anniversary retrospectives and programme information through its official channels. Third-party listings consistently place Kiel TV as a public-access (Offener Kanal) entry in directories of German regional and local television programmes, with broadcast start recorded as December 1991.