DW News

• 1. Introduction

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  DW News began broadcasting on the 22nd of June 2015, launched by Germany's state-owned international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. Satellites now carry the channel to television sets across the globe, backed by a companion website. A Turkish-language offshoot called DW Türkçe travels alongside it online, though its own origin story runs stranger than expected. What did Deutsche Welle want a round-the-clock news channel to do that its existing programs could not? And how does a single German broadcaster end up filling airtime on public stations in California and overnight schedules in Australia?

• 2. A German Answer

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  Before DW News, Deutsche Welle aired programs such as Journal, all of which the new channel replaced. The 24-hour format aimed to give Germany a channel that could stand beside BBC News and France 24. Those international rivals already broadcast around the clock, and DW wanted the same constant presence for German perspectives.

  Deutsche Welle expanded its reach further with a dedicated YouTube channel in Hindi. Its Turkish counterpart, DW Türkçe, is older still. It has been on YouTube since the 19th of April 2011, years before DW News itself went on air. That same ambition to rival global broadcasters would soon land the channel on public television schedules across the United States.

• 3. On Other Networks

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  In the United States, DW News airs at the top of every hour. Northern California is one such market, where public media stations pick up the broadcast for local rebroadcast. A trimmed 30-minute cut, branded DW The Day, reaches viewers through many PBS member stations nationwide.

  That same program also reaches a national audience through Link TV, and circulates on YouTube under the names DW English and DW Documentary. Anyone online can also watch a continuous DW livestream hosted on the broadcaster's own website.

  Australia offers another route in. ABC News carries the program live overnight, while SBS folds it into its WorldWatch strand of international news. SBS also turns to DW News as a stand-in whenever one of its own programs goes missing or gets pulled from the schedule.