International News Presentation: Past and Present

Apparently this strange set up dates back to the collapse of the Berlin Wall when the two PSBs launched a lunchtime news service to report on the reunification and did it on an alternating basis for financial reasons.

When they launched a permanent Breakfast service a few years later (after some temporary Gulf War specials that were well received) the same alternating pattern was adopted.

The alternating pattern came a little earlier as part of the "Vormittagsprogramm" ("Pre-Noon Programming").

The joint ARD ZDF Vormittagsprogramm started in 1966. Back then the Vormittagsprogramm was solely aimed at East German shift workers, to provide an alternative to East German TV, and thus was also only broadcast on transmitters that covered the GDR. Before 1966 ARD did it themselves, but the ZDF came in to coproduce mainly because their transmitters didn't cover the GDR as well.

Since 1981 it was broadcast on the whole of West Germany and the focus on serving just East Germany was gradually removed.

The alternting pattern was introduced for the Mittagsmagazin in October 1989, a month before the fall of the wall.

Up until the early 90s ARD and ZDF actually often had a closedown at around 1pm until the evening programming started.

(notice that it's ZDF heute playing, but in the end you get a testcard saying "WDR1")

AIUI, that "chattering" is actually a data transmission. Provided that people are receiving their local version on NHK, then their TVs shouldn't switch on if a warning doesn't apply to them.

Do ARD and ZDF show other programmes in the weeks they don't have the breakfast show?

I think so.
Apparently, ARD's Moma is show on both channels in even numbered weeks. The ZDF counterpart is shown on odd-numbered weeks.
ARD and ZDF also have a similar pattern with their Mittagsmagazin shows.

ARD's Mittagsmagazin is on odd-numbered weeks (formerly being in even weeks from 2016 to 2017, was changed to odd when the show moved to Berlin).

While ZDF's version is shown on even-numbered weeks (was formerly on odd weeks before 2018, when the show moved to Berlin in the same studio as ARD Mittagsmagazin)

I thought ARD and ZDF have been sharing stuff for a long time, long before 1989, or was it just sports coverage before then ?

My recollection is that they both go out on both channels - ie ARD Morgenmagazin is aired on both ARD and ZDF during the first week, and then ZDF Morgenmagazin is aired on both ARD and ZDF during the second week.

Yes, outside of special events both the Morgen- and Mittagsmagazin go out on both channels, regardless if it's the ARD or ZDF edition.

During special events you even sometimes get the wierd situation that the program made by ARD/ZDF isn't even shown on the respective channel. When for example the Olympics or the World Cup, where ARD and ZDF are sharing the rights, are happening outside Europe it can happen that the ZDF-Mittagsmagazin isn't shown on ZDF and only on Das Erste, because ZDF is showing the sports.

Oh, is NHK regional then, or at leasts regional as far as the "wake up" transmission is concerned? That's interesting, I was under the impression it was a totally national network.
I don't know how the data transmission thing works to power on the TVs, unless the satellite/cable/Japanese version of Freeview receivers can pass it through to the TV, since its probably safe to assume analogue TV isn't a thing now? It sounds like the sort of thing that would have been easy to do on analogue, but complicated on digital?

These special arrangements between ARD and ZDF go way back. This is how Timothy Green described them in his 1972 book about television around the world:

"At the Olympics, ARD covers one day's events live, while ZDF has summaries later; next day it is ZDF's turn for the live broadcasts. [...] Apollo moon-shots have been covered alternately; ARD did all the live televising on Apollo 12, ZDF took Apollo 13, ARD Apollo 14. When Apollo 13 ran into difficulties on the way to the moon and made its dramatic return to earth ZDF had the splashdown exclusively, although ARD were permitted to show it later on the regular news."

I'm not an expert on the technical aspect of it all, but I reckon it probably works in a similar manner to the Emergency Alert System in the United States.

As for the other points, NHK General is pretty similar to BBC One. It's a national station with local opt-outs for limited local content. These stations are all arranged based on prefectures (with the exception of the Tokyo station which also covers Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures). Other networks are arranged slightly differently, but all are generally based on either prefectures, or larger regions.

Finally, on the topic of analogue TV, you are correct in your belief that it's no longer a thing in Japan. The city of Suzu switched their signal off on 24th July 2010 as a trial, with a majority of the country following on 24th July 2011. However, there were three prefectures which kept their analogue transmissions for a bit longer. I'm sure most people will remember the Great East Japan Earthquake, which hit the country a few months before the planned national switchover. As a result, the prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima maintained their analogue transmissions whilst they were still recovering from the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear incident. These three areas eventually switched off analogue transmitters at noon on 31st March 2012.

This arrangement is absolutely fascinating...although I have to ask this obvious question....why are they still doing it today? Is it because of saving money? Or just because people now got used to this arrangement?