Germany - TV-Cable-ISP-Radio

Cable

• You are able to pick up many more TV stations when you have cable TV. A lot of these stations are thematic, such as MTV, Eurosport and Kika the children's network. There are many infomercial stations (but not all!) that actually change their programming to semi-decent entertainment in the evenings. "TM3" constantly broadcasts competitions where you can play spot the difference between two pictures, work out which match you have to move to make an equation correct and even take on the host at playing Connect 4.
• Most apartment buildings will have cable access, and the fee is often included in your "warm" rent. Although CNN is the only English language station, there are Turkish, Polish and Swiss (where they speak Swiss French with French subtitles and Swiss German with German subtitles) language stations. Some stations broadcast in multiple languages, but you need a special TV to be able to choose between the different sound channels.
  Go to www.kammler-kabeltv.de/sender.htm for a list of channels and tuning details.

Internet

To access internet you can rely on internet cafes if you do not have your own computer or by setting up a contract with an ISP (internet service provider).

• ISP
  You will naturally want to have all your Paguro information at your fingertips without the inconvenience of having to seek out an internet cafe. The rates differ depending on the package you buy from a particular provider, so here is a list of a few options for you to choose from:
  AOL   
  website: www.aol.de
  Arcor   
  website: www.arcor.com
  Freenet   
  website: www.freenet.de
  T-Online  
  website: www.t-online.de/service

Radio

TV and Radio are not for free in Germany. You have to declare, how many TVs and radios (including the radio in your car) you are using. Get in touch with:

• GEZ-Gebühreneinzugszentrale der oeffentlich rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten in der BRD
  Koeln
  50656 
  Germany
  Tel: + 49 (0) 1805-01 6565 (0,12E/min)
  Fax: + 49 (0) 1805-51 0700 (0,12E/min)
  email: [email protected]
  website: http://www.gez.de/
  The monthly fee for 1 TV and 1 radio are Eur 16,15. The same goes for only one radio or one TV but the price will go up if you have more than one of each.
• The main free-to-air stations don't all show their evening news reports together at a fixed time, so no matter what time you get home from work, you can catch up on the news (as long as you can understand German!). Many stations also have an extended midday news program. The earliest evening news report starts at around 5pm and the latest at 9:45pm. There are two exclusive cable news channels: Euronews in German and CNN Europe in English. Euronews bulletins cycle through every half hour with minor alterations.