ZDF is Germany's national public-service broadcaster, and you can watch ZDF online through the zdf.de streaming portal as well as on regular TV. Live streams, on-demand video and sport all sit in one place.
What ZDF is and what you can watch
ZDF stands for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, "Second German Television." The broadcaster is based in Mainz and runs as a non-profit public-law institution founded and overseen by Germany's 16 federal states. Nationwide broadcasts began on 1 April 1963 from Eschborn, near Frankfurt, and colour programming followed in 1967.
The schedule covers news, political analysis, live sport, films, drama series, and history and science documentaries. Named shows include "heute journal," "heute-show" and "NEO MAGAZIN ROYALE." Two sister channels sit alongside the main one, ZDFneo for younger viewers and ZDFinfo for documentaries, and both are broadcast in HD.
Who ZDF is made for
The mandate is broad. ZDF aims at the whole German public, around 84 million people, rather than one niche. ZDFneo narrows that down to viewers aged 25 to 34 with more modern series.
ZDF points to news, live sport, films and documentaries as the main reasons people keep watching. By its own account, ZDF has also been the most-watched channel in Germany for 12 years.
How to watch ZDF online
The ZDF live stream and the on-demand library run on zdf.de. The portal offers search, saved titles, personalised suggestions and automatic play across episodes. ZDFmediathek launched back in 2001, and in 2025 the broadcaster merged zdf.de and ZDFmediathek into one shared streaming portal.
Beyond the website, ZDF content reaches viewers through apps, smart TV and HbbTV, and third-party platforms such as Amazon, Apple TV and T-Entertain. One catch if you tune in from outside Germany. Some titles stay online only for a limited time and can be blocked abroad because of rights limits, while part of the international catalogue plays worldwide. Stream quality will feel different from one viewer to the next, so a quick try is the best test.
Worth keeping handy
ZDF suits anyone who wants German news, sport, drama and documentaries from a long-established public broadcaster. The Media Ownership Monitor puts its audience share at 14.6% in 2023, so plenty of viewers in Germany already rely on the channel. Bookmark this page to find the ZDF live stream quickly next time, and pass the link along if someone else might use it.
