3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

. The programming is in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 (in either Standard German

Standard German

Standard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...

 or Austrian Standard German

Austrian German

Austrian German , or Austrian Standard German, is the national standard variety of the German language spoken in Austria and in the autonomous Province of South Tyrol...

, depending on the producer of the respective programme) and is broadcast primarily within Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 (the major countries of the German-speaking world).

3sat was established for cultural

High culture

High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...

 programming broadcasts, over satellite networks. The network was founded as a cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

 network by Germany's ZDF

ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

, Austria's ORF

ORF

ORF may refer to:* ORF , the Austrian public service broadcaster.* Open reading frame, a portion of the genome.* The IATA airport code for Norfolk International Airport in Norfolk, Virginia.* ORF format , Olympus raw image file format....

 and Switzerland's SRG SSR idée suisse

SRG SSR idée suisse

SRG SSR is the Swiss public broadcasting organisation, founded in 1931 as SRG-SSR. Headquartered in Bern, SRG SSR is a non-profit organisation, funded mainly through radio and television licence fees and making the remaining income from advertising and sponsorship.Switzerland's system of direct...

 (formerly SRG). 3sat's broadcasting began on 1 December 1984. The ZDF network provides leadership within the cooperative, though decisions are made through a consensus of the cooperative's partners.

In 1990, the former DFF

Deutscher Fernsehfunk

Deutscher Fernsehfunk , known from 1972 to 1990 as Fernsehen der DDR , was the state television broadcaster in East Germany.-Foundation:...

 (German Television Broadcaster) of the German Democratic Republic became a cooperative member of 3sat, and a name change to 4sat was considered. Eventually it was decided to keep the original 3sat name. DFF's membership was dissolved in 3sat on 31 December 1991 as the broadcaster itself ceased to exist per Germany's Unification Treaty.

As of 1 December 1993, ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 joined 3sat as a cooperative member. This followed ARD's creation of their satellite channel "Eins Plus". 3sat today broadcasts programming 24/7. 3sat is available on the European Astra

SES Astra

Astra is the name for the geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is sometimes also used to describe the channels broadcasting from these...

 satellites at 19.2° east

Astra 19.2°E

Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES Astra, a subsidiary of SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg....

, cable television

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

, and in Austria and Germany on digital terrestrial television

Digital terrestrial television

Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...

.

Since 2003, it can be viewed by 40 million households in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and 85.5 million households in all of Europe.

Television series

• "3sat börse" (3sat Market), Fridays 9:30 pm
• "DENKmal" ("Think about it" - the name is a pun on the German word for monument), a knowledge quiz, transmitted once a month on a Saturday evening at 7:20 pm. During the quiz there are six puzzles taken from biographies.
• "scobel", a general knowledge series. Transmitted fortnightly, Thursdays at 9 pm. (Named before "Delta"
• "FOYER", a theater series. Transmitted fortnightly, Saturdays at 7:20 pm.
• "hitec" ("High Tech"), reports on science and technology, Sundays at 4 pm.
• "Kulturzeit" ("Cultural Time"), weekdays, 7:20 pm.
• "nano", "The World of Tomorrow," weekdays 6:30 pm.
• "neues", Computainment, Sundays at 4:30 pm.
• "tips&trends", a series covering products for the home, automobile, fashion and sport, Saturdays at 5:30 pm.