KI.KA
Encyclopedia
KI.KA is a public non-commercial
free television channel
based in Erfurt
, Germany
. It is a joint venture of national public television channels ARD
, and ARD's constituent broadcasting institutions – BR
, HR
, MDR
, NDR
, Radio Bremen
, RBB, Saarländischer Rundfunk
, SWR
, WDR and ZDF
, and is targeted at children and youth. KI.KA is broadcast on analog cable and satellite
as well as digital
services, DVB-T
, cable and via Astra
. KI.KA operates daily from 6:00 a.m. CET
until 9:00 p.m. CET, and airs a mixture of live action and animated features. Until 2003, its analog cable and satellite service ended at 7:00 p.m. CET; after that time the frequency was used by Arte
. KI.KA now has exclusive use of its frequency — Arte was assigned its own in 2003.
The station uses live continuity announcers, two of the most popular being Juri Tetzlaff (1997–2010), Karsten Blumenthal (1997–2004), Singa Gätgens (1997–2010), Lukas Koch (2003-3/2009). The station also repeats shows such as Tabaluga
TiVi from ZDF's main service.
The station generally serves children ranging from the age of 3 to approximately 13. Its mascot is the puppet character Bernd das Brot
, a chronically depressive loaf of bread. The girlgroup Saphir
was formed of the 2007-10 winners of the talent show KI.KA LIVE - Beste Stimme gesucht! (Best voice wanted).
Non-commercial
Non-commercial refers to an activity or entity that does not in some sense involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis...
free television channel
Television channel
A television channel is a physical or virtual channel over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the broadcast or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with carrier frequencies of 55.25 MHz for NTSC analog video and...
based in Erfurt
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, 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...
. It is a joint venture of national public television channels ARD
ARD (broadcaster)
ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...
, and ARD's constituent broadcasting institutions – BR
BR
- Places :* Bedroom* BR postcode area, a group of eight postal districts in southeast London* Baton Rouge, Louisiana* Brazil , according to:** Its two-letter country code defined in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2** The prefix for Brazil's ISO 3166-2 subdivision codes...
, HR
HR
-Arts and entertainment:* H. R. Pufnstuf, a children's television series* Haibane Renmei, an anime series* Halo Reach, a 2010 video game from Bungie Studios* Hannibal Rising , a 2007 thriller featuring the Hannibal Lecter character...
, MDR
MDR
MDR or mdr may refer to:* "MDR" is abbreviation of Master Document Register.* "MDR" is abbreviation of "Mort de rire" in french .* Mammalian diving reflex* Mandar language* Marina del Rey, California...
, NDR
NDR
NDR may refer to:* Numalian Democratic Republic a Micronation within the borders of Malaysia.* Nador International Airport — IATA code Morocan airport* National Derby Rallies...
, Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen , Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state of Bremen...
, RBB, Saarländischer Rundfunk
Saarländischer Rundfunk
Saarländischer Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster for the German Bundesland of Saarland, with its headquarters in the Broadcasting House Halberg in Saarbrücken. SR is a member of the ARD.- Finances :...
, SWR
SWR
SWR may refer to:Technology:* Standing wave ratio, a wave and antenna concept* Steel Wire ropeRadio stations:* Südwestrundfunk, a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany...
, WDR and 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...
, and is targeted at children and youth. KI.KA is broadcast on analog cable and satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
as well as digital
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
services, DVB-T
DVB-T
DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
, cable and via 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...
. KI.KA operates daily from 6:00 a.m. CET
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
until 9:00 p.m. CET, and airs a mixture of live action and animated features. Until 2003, its analog cable and satellite service ended at 7:00 p.m. CET; after that time the frequency was used by Arte
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
. KI.KA now has exclusive use of its frequency — Arte was assigned its own in 2003.
The station uses live continuity announcers, two of the most popular being Juri Tetzlaff (1997–2010), Karsten Blumenthal (1997–2004), Singa Gätgens (1997–2010), Lukas Koch (2003-3/2009). The station also repeats shows such as Tabaluga
Tabaluga
The little green Dragon Tabaluga is a cartoon character, who lives in the fictional place of Greenland. He is around 7 dragon-years old . He is the creation of the German Rock musician Peter Maffay, children's song writer Rolf Zuckowski and the author Gregor Rottschalk...
TiVi from ZDF's main service.
The station generally serves children ranging from the age of 3 to approximately 13. Its mascot is the puppet character Bernd das Brot
Bernd das Brot
Bernd das Brot is a puppet character, star mascot and cult figure of the German children's television channel KI.KA, currently featured in the programs Bernd das Brot, Bravo Bernd and the KI.KA late night loop program....
, a chronically depressive loaf of bread. The girlgroup Saphir
Saphir (band)
Saphir is an all-female teenage German pop group consisting of four girls. They all were winners of a Talent show KI.KA LIVE - Beste Stimme gesucht! on the german TV-station KI.KA , owned and operated by ARD and ZDF, in the years from 2007 to 2010.- History :Saphir was initiated by Lea Sofia...
was formed of the 2007-10 winners of the talent show KI.KA LIVE - Beste Stimme gesucht! (Best voice wanted).
Recent developments within the last years
There have been some clear perceptible changes in the programme for several years now. Although it had been one of the channel’s aims right from the start to broadcast both non-animated series and animated ones, the latter predominates the channel’s programme (85%) by now. There are sometimes continuous rebroadcasts of most of the series, which have come to an end. Similar to the procedure of private commercial stations, series are broadcast as double features. The difference between the working day and weekend programme keeps vanishing steadily, since many series are put on the air on a daily basis. Thus, some series such as “Hier ist Ian”, “Pet Alien” or “Au Schwarte!” are almost constantly part of the programme. The “Augsburger Puppenkiste”, which is a rather old German television programme and which had always been on the air on Saturday and Sunday mornings, was taken out of the KI.KA programme for four years, but returned in April 2008. Even so, most of the older series, which have been repeatedly broadcast between 1997 and 2004, have been excluded from the channel’s programme by now. The fact that ARD and ZDF do not possess appropriate broadcasting rights any longer partly accounts for the latter condition. Nevertheless, especially older series (for example "Pippi Langstrumpf", "Es war einmal...", "Pan Tau") can only be seen on the ZDF and regional channels in spite of existing broadcast rights. Apart from numerous animated series, the afternoon soap “Schloss Einstein” is currently almost the only fictional non-animated series within the channel’s programme during the day. There are only two other non-animated series of which one is on the air in the afternoon and the other in the evening. There are still two children’s movies (on Fridays and Sundays) on KI.KA, although, even at that time, animated films are being broadcast more often.