About Super TV

Super TV

Super TV is a weekly German television listings magazine published by the Mediengruppe Klambt. Launched on 1 March 1990 as a joint project of the Burda and Gong publishing houses specifically for the television audience of the former East Germany, it is today a nationwide classic programme guide with its editorial office in Berlin. Alongside programme listings, its editorial pages are particularly oriented toward readers in Germany's eastern states. Super TV appears every Thursday and is one of ten programme magazines in the Klambt portfolio, alongside sister titles such as Funk Uhr, Bildwoche, TV Neu and die zwei.

Overview

Super TV is a classic weekly programme magazine: a complete television programme for the coming week, clearly arranged day by day, combined with editorial articles on television, celebrities, health, everyday life and service topics. Its distinguishing feature within the crowded German listings market is its historical and editorial orientation toward eastern Germany — a legacy of its founding moment in the months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the publishers set out to create a programme magazine specifically for the "new" federal states.

The magazine is published weekly, with the editorial office located in Berlin — a natural base for a title whose identity is tied to the east. In the third quarter of 2025 the title reported sold circulation of 88,664 copies. The editor-in-chief is Britta Behrens, who also oversees the other Klambt programme titles. Super TV's website, supertv.de, extends the brand with programme information and editorial content.

History

Super TV was founded in an extraordinary historical moment. In early 1990, as German reunification approached, the southern German publishing houses Burda and Gong launched a joint venture: a weekly programme magazine conceived expressly for the audience in the German Democratic Republic and, after October 1990, the new federal states. The first issue appeared on 1 March 1990. The logic was straightforward — tens of millions of new readers were gaining access to West German television, and they needed a guide attuned to their viewing habits and interests.

In 1996 Burda took over Gong's shares in Super TV, becoming the sole owner; in return, Gong received Burda's long-standing programme magazine Bild+Funk. The swap disentangled the joint venture while keeping both publishers active in the listings segment. In 2005 Burda, having in the meantime acquired TV Spielfilm and TV Today and refocused its programme-magazine strategy around those titles, sold Super TV back to the Gong Verlag — by then part of the WAZ media group, today's Funke Mediengruppe. Under Gong, Super TV was relaunched and integrated into the publisher's programme-magazine family alongside Gong and Bild+Funk.

The title changed hands once more in the mid-2010s as a consequence of the landmark 2013/2014 transaction in which Axel Springer sold its regional newspapers and its programme and women's magazines to the Funke Mediengruppe for 920 million euros. To satisfy the Federal Cartel Office, Funke had to divest several programme titles; eight of them — including Funk Uhr, Bildwoche, TV Neu, die zwei and Super TV — were acquired by the Mediengruppe Klambt in May 2014. Since then Super TV has been published by Klambt from Baden-Baden, with its editorial office remaining in Berlin. The Berlin base is a deliberate editorial choice: for a title whose identity is tied to the east, the capital newsroom keeps the magazine close to its readers' world — the regional stories, the eastern celebrities, the concerns of the new federal states that the southern and western programme titles treat as an afterthought. The ownership history — Burda/Gong joint venture, Burda, Gong, Klambt — reads as a compact history of German programme-magazine consolidation, and Super TV's survival through each change of hands testifies to the loyalty of its eastern readership.

Content

Each weekly issue of Super TV carries the complete television programme for the coming seven days, covering the major German free-to-air channels — the ARD and ZDF families, the RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 groups and the leading special-interest channels — in a clear day-by-day layout with programme recommendations and daily highlights. The listings are the core utility of the magazine; around them sits an editorial section with a distinctive eastern German accent.

The editorial pages focus on television and celebrities, with interviews and features on the actors, presenters and personalities familiar to the title's core readership, alongside service journalism on health, household, finance and everyday life, plus puzzles and advice columns. The orientation toward the population of the new federal states — stated explicitly in the magazine's self-description — shapes the choice of topics, the tone and the selection of regional content, giving Super TV a profile distinct from the nationally uniform programme weeklies.

Coverage & Audience

Super TV is sold nationwide in Germany at newsstands, in supermarkets and by subscription, appearing weekly on Thursdays. While its distribution is national, its editorial identity and a significant part of its readership remain rooted in eastern Germany, the market for which it was created in 1990. The title's readers are classic programme-magazine users: viewers who plan their television week in print and value the combination of complete listings with accessible service journalism.

Within the Klambt programme portfolio, Super TV complements the women's-oriented Funk Uhr, the classic Bildwoche and the other listings titles, giving the publishing group coverage across the segments of the weekly guide market. The magazine competes with the Funke, Bauer and Burda programme titles, differentiating itself through its eastern German editorial accent rather than through price or format experiments.

Ownership

Super TV is published by the Mediengruppe Klambt, a family-owned media group based in Baden-Baden with roots going back to the nineteenth century. Klambt's portfolio spans programme magazines — including Funk Uhr, Bildwoche, TV Neu, die zwei, TV piccolino and Super TV — as well as women's, health, puzzle and special-interest titles. The group acquired its programme-magazine division in May 2014 from the Funke Mediengruppe, which had been required by the Federal Cartel Office to divest the titles after its acquisition of Springer's magazines.

The editorial office of Super TV is in Berlin, reflecting the title's eastern German orientation, while the publishing management sits with Klambt in Baden-Baden. The editor-in-chief is Britta Behrens. The corporate history of the title — Burda and Gong's 1990 joint venture, Burda's sole ownership from 1996, the return to Gong in 2005 and the move to Klambt in 2014 — mirrors the consolidation of the German magazine market over three decades.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, supertv.de, carries programme information, celebrity news and service content, and supports subscription and e-paper sales. Like all print programme guides, Super TV operates in a market where daily listings have largely moved to electronic programme guides, apps and smart-TV interfaces; the print magazine's defence is curation — the editorial selection of highlights, the interviews and the service journalism that a grid of times and titles cannot provide. The e-paper edition offers the familiar weekly layout on digital devices, and the title maintains social media channels oriented toward television, celebrities and everyday service topics for its core readership.

The Klambt programme portfolio — the ten programme magazines including Funk Uhr, Bildwoche, TV Neu and die zwei — is the publishing context: the Baden-Baden media group's specialist programme stable, acquired in the landmark May 2014 transaction. The Berlin editorial office keeps the title close to its readers' world: the eastern stories, the regional celebrities, the concerns of the new federal states — the identity the 1990 founding established. The Thursday rhythm serves the weekly: the programme week previewed, the highlights chosen, the eastern accent maintained. The 1990 founding history — the Burda/Gong joint venture for the GDR audience, the 1 March first issue, the reunification-era launch — is the institutional memory: the magazine born of German history's great turning point. The eastern-German orientation remains the distinction: the programme guide attuned to the viewing habits and interests of the east, in a market of western titles. In the German programme press, Super TV is the eastern voice: the weekly that has served its readers since the reunification, through every ownership change, with the loyalty that the founding promise earned.