There is an amazing site called vox.de, which is free and legal (basically a german iplayer), and it has loooooads of german shows, and everything is what they are watching during the day in Germany! Its really nice to watch exactly what German people themselves are watching on TV in Germany, it makes you feel so a part of the culture!!
(click on ‘Alle Sender’ for a full list of shows, and then ‘nur frei’. Its a pretty easy site to navigate around
Hopefully some people find this useful, for me it is a massive source of content to stumble upon.
There is a ton of good German TV out there online! Folks can go to Youtube and find 100s of hours (literally!) of West German material from the 70s and 80s on a criminal detective theme.
Search for: “Tatort”, “Derrick”, “Ein Fall für Zwei”, “Der Alte” (among others)
These are “private” channels and most of their programs I wouldn’t recommend. I rarely watch them.
I’ve collected some links on my blog for German learners: http://learninggerman.verasblogs.com/tv-und-radio/ . Please let me know if you find my blog helpful. If some links don’t work, just let me know.
An interesting program for downloading videos from the “Öffentlich-rechtliches Fernsehen” which I can recommend is Mediathekview: http://zdfmediathk.sourceforge.net/
Vera, surely you would agree that some of these dramas are real classics of German television!? (I mean the ones written by Karl Heinz Willschrei, Detlef Müller, Herbert Reinecker, etc?)
Of course one does need to be high-intermediate or advanced level in order to start watching TV drama for pleasure - so it won’t be useful for all learners at all stages.
(But I know that I personally have learnt quite a lot from watching these shows - things like legal vocabulary if nothing else!)
@Ray: Yes, the crime series you mentioned are really classics. “Tatort” is still running. Every week a new story. You can watch them in the Mediathek or download them with the program I’ve mentioned. “Derrick” was never my favourite one, but I liked “Ein Fall für Zwei”. I guess because it was situated in Hessen, where I live No, I was just joking. I liked the characters.
What I forgot to mention too is, that you can download subtitles for some videos as well with the Mediathekview program.
One legal way of enjoying German TV is via their dedicated iOS apps for Das Erste DF, ZDF, as well as Tagesschau. There, you can stream the latest Tatort in HD with a clear conscience Also, for those with an Apple TV box, Tagesschau has a direct app for Apple TV, so you can just click on the news there at any time. (you can also send your video feed from the other apps to Apple TV via AirPlay, which is what I usually do with Tatort etc.)
No, I was just joking. I liked the characters.