ZDF Musikkanal was the name of a television channel operated by ZDF which had started broadcasting on 1 January 1984 as part of the cable pilot projects in West Germany. The station broadcast a moderated programme with a thematic focus on music. The programmes broadcast came almost exclusively from the archives of the ZDF main programme.[1][2]
The ZDF Musikkanal remained on air as an independent programme until 31 December 1988, and from January 1989 it was broadcast as a programme window before the
and the associated participation of ARD in 3sat from 1 December 1993, an extensive programme reform followed, as a result of which the ZDF music channel's programme line was discontinued.
Initially, the station was broadcast only in the so-called cable pilot projects: from 1 January 1984 in the cable pilot project of
In the context of independence, a three-hour evening programme was initially offered daily, later this was extended to up to 6 hours between 16:00 and 22:00.[5] With the change to 3sat the station was only reduced from 14:30 to 17:20 on weekdays, on weekends there were no more transmission distances. Recurring programmes were ZDF-Hitparade, Disco or P. I. T. – Peter-Illmann-Treff. One of the few in-house productions was the studio programme Gast im Studio. Folk music programmes or classical music were also included in the programme.[6] Isolated series with a focus on music were also broadcast, such as the ZDF production from 1980 ...und die Tuba bläst der Huber broadcast in 1988.[7]
