About Sachsen Fernsehen

Sachsen Fernsehen

Sachsen Fernsehen is a private regional television network for the Free State of Saxony, uniting the metropolitan stations of Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig under a common brand and programme operation. Rooted in Chemnitz — where it began on 4 October 1993 as "Lokal TV Chemnitz" / "Drehscheibe Chemnitz" in a VOX programme window — the network today operates from Chemnitz with a joint programme, the satellite service Sachsen Eins on Astra and the DAB+ radio service Sachsen Eins Radio. It is one of eastern Germany's most enduring commercial television operations, active across television, streaming and social video.

Overview

Sachsen Fernsehen is a private regional programme (Regionalprogramm) licensed by the Saxon media authority SLM. The operating company is F.i.S. Fernsehen in Sachsen GmbH of Chemnitz. The network's broadcast area spans the greater regions of Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig and Plauen, receivable via cable networks (Primacom/Pÿur, Kabel Deutschland, smaller operators), DVB-T in HD in the Chemnitz city area (channel 30), satellite via the Sachsen Eins joint programme on Astra, and internet livestream.

History

The network's origins lie in Chemnitz. On 4 October 1993, the half-hour programme "Lokal TV Chemnitz" — soon renamed "Drehscheibe Chemnitz" — began as a weekday regional window interrupting the analogue terrestrial VOX signal on channel 45 from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. (repeated 6:00–6:30 p.m. on the RTL channel 47).

From 1 July 1999, together with the regional Chemnitz Fernsehen, the all-day joint programme "Sachsen Fernsehen" aired on the terrestrial channel previously used by RTL, operated by Sachsen Fernsehen GmbH & Co. Fernseh-Betriebs KG. The joint schedule pooled the output of Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig, and at peak even included fictional entertainment: older TV series and feature films from the Kirch Group archive aired in primetime, and from April 2001 to July 2002 the Kirch Group's Suntv sustaining programme — with Blondes Gift (Barbara Schöneberger) and WIB-Schaukel (Wigald Boning) — was carried by the Saxon metropolitan stations, ending with the Kirch insolvency.

Financial difficulties ended the centralised operation: the Betriebs-KG transferred playout to regional partners in Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig. In March 2012, Sachsen Fernsehen won the RegioStar 2012 prize for Germany's best regional news journal with Drehscheibe Chemnitz. In May 2013, closure of Sachsen Fernsehen and Leipzig Fernsehen was announced for September 2013 over annual losses of €180,000; in August 2013 the Dresden-based Haeswe GmbH stepped in to secure continued operations, and F.i.S. Fernsehen in Sachsen GmbH was founded as the production company for Leipzig and Chemnitz.

In April 2019 the network was nominated in five categories for the Regionalfernsehpreis, winning best news moderation for Leipzig Fernsehen. The network's YouTube channel has covered Chemnitz's year as European Capital of Culture 2025 and the 2026 "bridge year" legacy process in depth.

Programming

The network's journalism is built around the "Drehscheibe" news magazines — Drehscheibe Chemnitz, Drehscheibe Dresden, Drehscheibe Leipzig — among the oldest continuously used programme brands in eastern German television. The joint programme Sachsen Eins airs via Astra satellite, extending the network's reach beyond its cable and terrestrial footprints. The "Drehscheibe Chemnitz" reports are offered on the homepage for reading and viewing, and the network maintains active Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook presences.

Current magazine brands include the daily SACHSENaktuell, DRESDENaktuell, LEIPZIGaktuell, CHEMNITZaktuell and ELBLANDaktuell — the latter covering the Elbland region around Meissen and Riesa. The entertainment offer includes the Mitkoch-Show, a cooking show in which celebrity guests compete against each other, and FahrgastFernsehen, a service specially produced for information screens in trams and buses. In early 2016 the Chemnitz feed was renamed "Chemnitz Fernsehen" while the umbrella brand Sachsen Fernsehen remained unchanged. According to an NDR investigation reported by tagesschau, the network has also been among the German local stations that aired Chinese state-produced programmes, in some cases for payment — a finding that sits uneasily with the network's commercial-revenue struggles of the 2013 era.

The Kirch Era

The most colourful chapter in Sachsen Fernsehen's history is the Kirch era of 1999–2002, when the joint programme of Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig carried entertainment content from the Kirch Group's vast film and series archive. Primetime on a Saxon regional channel could feature "Ein Bayer auf Rügen" or feature films from the Kirch library — an extraordinary proposition for local television, made possible by the group's need for broadcast outlets for its archive.

From April 2001 to July 2002, the stations additionally carried Suntv, the Kirch Group's sustaining programme produced exclusively for Germany's metropolitan-area broadcasters. Suntv brought nationally recognised formats to Saxon screens: Blondes Gift with Barbara Schöneberger reporting on show business, and WIB-Schaukel with Wigald Boning spending a day with celebrities at their homes. For viewers in Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig, this meant a unique hybrid: genuinely local "Drehscheibe" news wrapped in national entertainment packaging.

The Kirch insolvency of 2002 ended the arrangement overnight and plunged the joint operator into financial crisis, leading to the transfer of playout to regional partners. But the era demonstrated — briefly — what a well-funded Saxon regional television could look like, and its memory still colours assessments of the network's potential.

Chemnitz 2025 and the Network Today

The network's recent journalism has been shaped by Chemnitz's year as European Capital of Culture 2025. Sachsen Fernsehen's newsroom covered the Capital of Culture year intensively, and its YouTube channel has documented the 2026 "bridge year" — the legacy process of securing projects, developing new ideas and sustaining the region's cultural momentum with federal, state and regional funding. Coverage has examined what remains of the Capital of Culture hype, how tourism can build on the international attention, and how citizen participation — the proclaimed core of the "legacy" — is working in practice.

This cultural reporting sits alongside the daily "Drehscheibe" journalism from Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig, the Sachsen Eins satellite joint programme and Sachsen Eins Radio on DAB+. The network's multi-platform presence — linear TV, satellite, radio, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok — makes it one of the most digitally diversified regional broadcasters in eastern Germany, a long way from the 1993 half-hour VOX window in Chemnitz where it all began.

The network covers Saxony's three metropolitan centres — Chemnitz (European Capital of Culture 2025), Dresden (state capital) and Leipzig (largest city) — plus Plauen and surrounding areas. Chemnitz Fernsehen was among the last German TV stations to broadcast analogue terrestrially, ending UHF channel 47 transmission at the end of 2012. Today it is fed digitally into the Pÿur, Kabel Deutschland and smaller cable networks (reaching in some cases to Dresden, Leipzig and Plauen), receivable terrestrially in HD in Chemnitz via room antenna, and streamed online. The audience is Saxony's urban population seeking television news from their own cities.

Ownership

The network is operated by F.i.S. Fernsehen in Sachsen GmbH of Chemnitz, with the 2013 rescue backed by Haeswe GmbH of Dresden. The licensing authority is the SLM (Sächsische Landesmedienanstalt).

Digital Presence

Sachsen Fernsehen operates sachsen-fernsehen.de with a livestream and on-demand "Drehscheibe" reports, alongside the joint Sachsen Eins satellite programme and Sachsen Eins Radio on DAB+ in Chemnitz and Leipzig. Its YouTube channel publishes daily reports — including extensive coverage of Chemnitz 2025's cultural-capital legacy — and the network is active on Instagram, TikTok, X (@dresdennews) and Facebook.

Market Position

Sachsen Fernsehen is eastern Germany's most networked commercial regional television operation, binding three metropolitan stations into a single brand with shared production, a satellite joint programme and a DAB+ radio extension. Its history — from the 1993 Chemnitz window through the Kirch-era joint programme, the 2013 near-closure and rescue, to the award-winning "Drehscheibe" journalism of today — mirrors the trajectory of commercial local television in the eastern states: structurally underfunded by local advertising alone, repeatedly rescued by shareholders, yet editorially resilient. In Saxony's media market it operates alongside the dominant MDR (whose Sachsenspiegel comes from Dresden), the regional newspaper groups and the public broadcasters, as the commercial alternative for city-level television news.