Rapid TV News

German gay TV launches Nov 1

Jörn Krieger ©RapidTVNews | 25-09-2008

TIMM, Germany’s first thematic TV channel for gay viewers, will launch on November 1, announced by operating company Deutsche Fernsehwerke (DFW) at a press conference in Hamburg.

The free-to-air channel, which aims to finance through advertising and sponsoring, wants to offer a general interest service with series, movies, documentaries, news and entertainment shows. The planned in-house productions include a travel show, a dating show and a chat show, with the share of original productions rising gradually.

Amongst the TV series on TIMM’s schedule are international productions Footballers’ Wives, Noah’s Arc, Mile High and Queer as Folk, some of which will be shown as German TV premieres. The movie list includes Beautiful Boxer (2003), The Line of Beauty (2006), Ma Vie en Rose (1997) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994).

TIMM will transmit daily between 18.00 CET and midnight, with an extended schedule on weekends. The service will be available in digital on Astra (19.2° East) on the frequency 12.633 GHz H (SR 22,000, FEC 5/6), on cable networks throughout German-speaking Europe and on IPTV platform Zattoo.

The TV channel will be accompanied by an extensive online portal at www.timm.de, which offers viewers the possibility to post their feedback, engage in programmes and contribute self-produced content. Also, a live-stream of the TV channel, a video-on-demand service with selected content and a radio-stream are planned.

DFW is backed by German publishing house Madsack, investment group IBB’s creativity fund VC Berlin and south&browse, the TV production company owned by Frank Lukas, managing director of both DFW and TIMM.

© Rapid TV News 2008