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GERMAN TV PROGRAMS VIA BROADBAND

NEXTV is a division of Canada’s Ethnic Channels Group. Established in 2007, NEXTV offers a selection of multicultural channels broadcasting in a variety of languages. Subscribers must have a high-speed internet connection (minimum 1.5 megabits per second) and NEXTV’s set-top box.

Besides German, NEXTV offers programming in Arabic, Greek, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. The company has plans to eventually expand to about 100 channels of ethnic programing. Using IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), it serves subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The Canada-based company beams its TV programming into your home via DSL or cable high-speed internet and a converter box connected to your TV set. Subscribers don’t need a computer; watching NEXTV is just like watching over-the-air, satellite, or cable TV. The picture quality is good, but not as sharp as a normal TV image. The audio is normal stereo quality. (See my Review of NEXTV for more.)

The “German Package” currently includes about a dozen channels in German: ARD, ZDF, DW-TV, EuroNews, MDR, NDR, WDR, ProSiebenSat.1 Welt, and two pay-per-view movie channels. The basic German Package costs about $32 a month, including all taxes and fees. Several of those channels (ARD, ZDF, MDR, NDR, WDR) are exclusive to NEXTV in North America and not available in Dish Network’s German Package via satellite. The basic NEXTV German channel lineup that I now have includes the following Sender: ARD, ARDL*, ZDF, ZDFL*, MDR, München TV, NDR, Rhein Main TV, Ki.Ka, and WDR. (For some reason, Al Jazeera, CBC News, Fox News, God TV, Jewish Life, and Russia Today are also included, all in English.) You can add DW-TV, EuroNews, and ProSiebenSat.1 Welt for an extra fee. I have not yet tried the new German video-on-demand channels. (For the current channel list, see Part 4.)

See my personal Review of NEXTV. I also invite readers who have a NEXTV subscription to contact me about their own experiences.

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*ARDL and ZDFL are the live versions of ARD and ZDF, broadcasting in real time, with no time delay.

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