Why Mobile Video Apps?

Whether you’re living in German-speaking Europe or somewhere else in the world where it’s not that easy to watch German-language television, these apps allow you to watch TV and movies that the locals watch. Even if you’re in Germany, there are times when it’s nice to be able to use your smartphone or tablet device to read, watch, or listen to news and entertainment in German.

Language-learners also love these apps. If you want to improve your listening skills, vocabulary, and pronunciation, there’s nothing better than hearing real German spoken by real Germans (or Austrians and Swiss). Watching TV or listening to the radio via a mobile app lets you do that when you have some free time almost anywhere.

There are also apps that expats can use for watching TV or listening to radio from their homeland, but here we concentrate on apps for German media. If you know of a good app for German television or movies not mentioned here, please let us know with a comment below or via Contact Us. Apps are listed below in alphabetical order. All of the apps listed are available for the iPhone and iPad (iOS) from the Apple App Store. Most are also available for Android devices, but I have not verified that. All of the apps offer a sharp HD picture (usually 720p), as long as you have a reasonably fast internet connection (12 Mbps or better).

NEXTV: The Bad News and the Good News

Before we get to the apps, a few words about NEXTV and their new app. Those of us who remember the glory days of NEXTV, when this streaming television service offered a full lineup of German television channels, have been unhappy to see the diminished schedule since 2015. That was the year when NEXTV suddenly dropped most of its extensive German channel lineup. Which is why that was also the year I began looking for alternate ways of watching German, Austrian, and Swiss television.

NEXTV eventually brought back some of their former German television content, but they’re still missing much of what was offered before 2015. (See NEXTV’s German Package for more.) It now charges about $15.00 a month for its German programming, a bit high when compared to German TV Co.’s much larger channel lineup for about the same cost. Despite still subscribing to NEXTV, I have continued to seek out apps that give me access to a much wider range of German-language television and movies, also from Austrian and Swiss broadcasters. Below I have shared most of what I discovered.

The “Abendschau” app allows you to watch the nightly newscast from rbb in Berlin, plus other news and information – something you can’t do with NEXTV. PHOTO: rbb

Apps for Watching Television and Movies in German

These free apps allow you to view the news and entertainment broadcast by television broadcasters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Some apps may geo-block certain live programming, but for the most part they allow you to watch video in German on your mobile phone or tablet. Using Chromecast or AppleTV, you can also use some of these apps to watch content on your regular TV set.

Why You Might Want to Use a VPN for Video Streaming Maybe you’ve already experienced geo-blocking. That’s when streaming video content is blocked for copyright or other legal reasons in your country or region. You may see a notice stating something like: “This content can’t be viewed in your location.” It can happen with Netflix movies, the German-language TV networks, sporting events, and other content. Normally your ISP address reveals the location of the server where you access the internet. That’s where a VPN, a Virtual Private Network, can work its magic to hide your true server location by using a server in another country (plus encryption). We recommend VyprVPN’s free trial if you would like to see how VPN works.

Most of the apps listed below are free to install and view. However, some (NEXTV International) require a paid subscription in order to view anything at all. Others (YouTV) offer some limited content for free, but you need to pay to get the full package. A few (German TV Co.) offer a free trial period, after which you need to have a paid subscription in order to continue watching.

Abendschau (rbb)
The excellent rbb app offers a full overview of local news and culture from the German capital. The only downside is geo-blocking of the rbb livestream, which is available only in Germany. (Something shared by most of the apps listed here.) But you can read articles and watch recent nightly Abendschau newscasts, video clips, and documentaries going back a few days or weeks. I first discovered this great app when I lost access to rbb on NEXTV in 2015. The app offers an easy way to stay in touch with events in Berlin and Brandenburg. Will the new BER airport ever open? Tune in to rbb! Access to rbb is also offered in the ARD Mediathek app below.

ARD Mediathek
Similar to the ZDF Mediathek we describe below, this app from Germany’s “First Channel” (Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen) lets you watch the same German television news, films, and series that Germans watch. (If you’re a “Tatort” fan, this is the app for you!) This app also offers access to Germany’s regional broadcasters (Regionalsender). Live streaming is blocked if you’re not in Germany.

ARTE
This Franco-German cultural TV channel (since 1992) offers an excellent app that allows viewers to watch films and documentaries in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, or Spanish. (You have to go to Settings [cogwheel icon] and select the language you want.) Some live content is geo-blocked, but most video is available in North America. WEB: ARTE.tv (in English and other languages)

Das Erste (ARD)
Watch German soap operas and popular TV series (“Tatort,” “Um Gottes Willen”), and movies in German. Similar to the ARD Mediathek app, but more limited to TV. WEB: iTunes – Das Erste (ARD) app

DW
The Deutsche Welle (DW) app is fine for reading news articles and watching livestream news, but in order to switch between English and German, you have to go to Settings/Einstellungen (at the bottom of the sidebar menu) and select the language you want (among many, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish). But even if you select Deutsch, DW blocks the German-language livestream for viewers in North America, offering only English or Spanish. (Under TV, you are able to select the language in the top menu bar, but Deutsch is still geo-blocked, leaving only English and Spanish live-streaming.) You can watch video (news, culture, etc.) in the app’s Media Center, but only in the language you have selected under Settings/Einstellungen. This rigidity is a bit odd for a news and cultural service offered worldwide in many languages, but DW is a good source of news and info in German and other languages. The image here is a screenshot of the iPhone app. (Click the image for a larger view.)

German TV Company
German TV Co. (GTC) has an Android app, but no Apple iOS app. I don’t do Android, so I can’t tell you if the Android app is any good or not. I can and do recommend GTC’s normal streaming German television package viewed via a box on a normal TV, or on the web. If you want to learn more, see German TV Co.’s channel lineup.

Global TV
This app is only listed here so we can tell you to avoid it. Few of the channel links work, but the few that do, display okay. But it’s like Russian roulette trying to find a link that works. Not recommended.

Kanopy
The Kanopy app is strictly for German cinema (in German with English subtitles). Although the selection is somewhat limited, it includes some great classics such as Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (with Klaus Kinski), Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” and “Marlene,” Maximilian Schell’s 1984 documentary about Marlene Dietrich, in which she is interviewed on audio tape, but never appears live on camera. There are also some more recent films. You have to select a library when you sign in (for free!). I selected the Goethe Institute.

NDR Hamburg
The NDR Hamburg app lets you read the latest news from northern Germany and the Hansestadt Hamburg, listen to the radio (90.3 FM), or watch the news (“Hamburg Journal”). You can even listen to the radio while reading the news. This versatile app also offers video segments from other NDR HH broadcasts (“Hamburgs Geheimnisse”). I was even able to watch the NDR Livestream from my location in North America.

NEXTV International
Canada-based NEXTV recently upgraded their Roku live-streaming service and added Apple TV, as well as this mobile app. Although I was first attracted to NEXTV because it was a TV-based service, allowing me to watch on my regular TV set, I have come to like the app. Although it has its drawbacks (little or no programming information, for one), I think the current App Store rating of one out of five is ridiculous. I’d give the app a rating of three, mostly because of the lack of program info, but basically the app works very well with wi-fi or 4G/LTE cell phone access. The app allows you to view all of the 25 German channels that NEXTV offers, but you need to be a subscriber ($15 per month). For more about NEXTV see NEXTV German from the German Way.

ntv
The ntv news app allows you to read the latest news in German and watch a livestream of this German cable news channel. Unlike most other broadcasters, ntv does not restrict its live-streamed broadcasts. But if you want to watch current news, you’ll need to watch when it’s daylight in Germany. Non-prime time is mostly historical documentaries. Ntv also covers financial and business news. The quality is high and the app is easy to use. You can also watch various news clips and documentaries. You can choose to get breaking news alerts. A nice feature for language-learners: free audio downloads that can be listened to offline. WEB: n-tv.de

ORF (Austrian Radio and TV)
Beside its excellent TV news and culture main app, the Austrian public broadcaster ORF also offers apps for each of the regional radio and TV broadcasters in Austria’s nine provinces. The main app focuses on the Austrian “Zeit im Bild” (ZIB) news broadcasts (1 and 2), plus other national and international news and information. As usual, the news livestream is geo-blocked, but you can watch ZIB 1 and 2 any time after the live broadcasts.

I enjoy listening to the lilting Austrian version of German heard on ORF. This is a screenshot of the ORF iPhone app. PHOTO: ORF/Apple

Play SRF and SRF
Each of these two apps from the Swiss national broadcaster SRF.ch (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen) is excellent, but they each focus on different media. Play SRF, as the name implies, is more aimed at video. Livestreaming is geo-blocked for those outside of Switzerland, but you can still view past newscasts and other shows. The SRF app is more text-based, allowing users to read the current news from Switzerland, but video and audio clips are also available.

Tagesschau (ARD)
Watch the nightly news in German, just like the Germans do. Short news clips and 15-20-minute newscasts. If you’re mostly interested in the news from Germany, this app from ARD focuses on Nachrichten.

YouTV
Unlike most of the apps listed here, the YouTV app is a recording app that does not allow any streamed viewing. You have to register (for free) to obtain basic recording ability, but if you really want to record a variety of TV news and entertainment (more than 5 programs in a month), you’ll have to pay a monthly fee of €5.99 (basic), €9.99 (pro), or €14.99 (family). My limited testing of this app indicates the recording quality and user interface are good. The channel selection is extensive, with over 50 broadcasters in Germany. My problem with YouTV is that you have to remember you have recorded shows (you do get notifications), and if you forget, they will be deleted after 24 hours (longer if you pay). But if you want to record real German television, this is a good option for a reasonable cost.

ZDF Mediathek
This app from Germany’s second public TV channel (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, ZDF) is one of the best available. Although it also blocks its livestream for viewers outside of Germany, the app still allows you to watch recent news, specials, weather, and entertainment programs in German, including heute, ZDF’s nightly newscast. You can also watch news clips and other programming. If you subscribe (for free) to individual topics (news, comedy, history, movies, etc.), you can receive notifications. “Mein ZDF” lets you keep track of topics and broadcasts you like. You can also download some programs for viewing offline. WEB: iTunes – ZDFmediathek app

To download any of these apps, go to the Apple App Store or Android’s Google Play on your mobile device and search by name for the app(s) you want.

– HF