3sat is a 'predominantly cultural' channel operated by state broadcasters in Germany (ZDF and the ARD regional state broadcasters), Switzerland (SRG) and Austria (ORF). The collaboration is led by ZDF which also presents and broadcasts the channel from its studios in Mainz. It is available by satellite and cable throughout the German-speaking countries in Europe and also via satellite in southern Africa, where German is spoken in Namibia! A special feature of the channel is when there is a holiday in Germany, 3sat shows musical concerts in the series Pop Around the Clock from 2am to 5am recently ranging from Pink Floyd to Backstreet Boys to Shania Twain.
3Sat Ident1990
A silent ident to start the Saturday on 3sat in 1990, long before the channel became a 24-hour station in December 1993. Martin
Giggenschwyler promises movies and sport to entertain us.
Zur Sache1990
"Zur Sache" (to the matter in hand, to the point) appears to have been a programme presenting concise documentary reports on
current affairs.
3Sat Ident1990
A little bit of history here. This ident from September 1990 name-checks the four organisations participating in 3sat at the time - including the shortlived involvement of DFF (Deutscher Fernsehfunk), which was the East German state broadcaster until German
unification on 3 October 1990 and would replaced by regional state broadcasters SFB, ORB and MDR at the start of 1992. The very start of the clip shows postal addresses for all the 3sat broadcasters with DFF noticeably missing a country-code on its postcode (the 1199 postcode was still from the East German system, but East Germany was about to cease to exist). As a result of DFF's participation, there was talk of changing the channel's name to 4sat, but 3sat stuck. Yet the 4-triangles-in-a-triangle ident animation attempts to recognise the four participants' contribution to make up the channel's output.
Here, Wolfram Böhme's got some help for those indecisive people who still don't know what to do with their day: the solutions mainly involve programme offerings from 3sat, of course!
3Sat Presentation1990
3sat points to its multi-national roots with a promo for a gentle-looking German comedy about an old people's home entitled "A
home for animals", followed by "Pictures from Austria".
3Sat Promo1998
ZDF raised its game in terms of channel branding in the 1990s, and 3sat (which it still operated) seems to have followed suit, with the four dots in the logo still giving a nod to the four participants, though by now DFF is long gone and the fourth partner is Germany's ARD network of regional state broadcasters. The trail is for a punchy sounding investigation into the euro single currency (which was to be introduced for non-cash transactions from the start of 1999) and the negative impact it might have on European relations, in particular 'the German-French friendship'.