Whether it's the latest world news, Hamburg-related stories or just entertainment, Hamburg is one of Germany's most important media locations. As in all of Germany, you have to pay for public service radio and television in Hamburg. This fee, the so-called 'Rundfunkbeitrag', is obligatory for every household (though not for every single person). There are also plenty of commercial channels ─ some of them specific to Hamburg, and some interesting independent channels as well.
Programmes generally broadcast in German, but there are some channels that provide international programming, such as the independent radio station Freies Sender Kombinat (FSK) (German only), which broadcasts in various languages. Deutsche Welle (DW) isn't made in Hamburg, but is a good source for German and international news and human interest programming broadcast in a wide array of languages.
If you're looking for an official site to inform yourself about politics and news in English, you can also have a look at the website of the Federal Foreign Office.
Find regional TV and radio channels from Hamburg listed below.
Regional TV
Tide TV (German only)
Independent television station open for public participation; based in Hamburg. Goal is to allow citizens of Hamburg to create and produce concepts for radio and TV.
Hamburg 1 (German only)
Private, regional broadcaster based in Hamburg. Programming includes regional, national and international news, as well as shows focusing on local businesses.
Public TV
NDR (German only)
North German Broadcaster that produces 'Hamburg Journal' and other programmes, many of which have syndicated broadcasts on other channels, i.e. ARD
ZDF (German only)
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, public German broadcaster based in Mainz.
Studio Hamburg
Produces shows set in Hamburg for ARD and ZDF, such as Großstadtrevier (a particularly popular and long-running series), Notruf Hafenkante (see photo) and Quizduell.
Commercial TV
SAT.1 (German only)
Germany's oldest commercial broadcaster, their nation-wide programming includes news, entertainment, game shows and documentaries.
RTL (NORD) (German only)
Produces regional news and human interest programming for Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen and Bremen.
SPIEGEL TV WISSEN (German only)
TV-production company of 'SPIEGEL' publishing house.
BIBEL TV (German only)
24-hour Christian television channel based in Hamburg and financed by donations.
Radio
Check out this map for an overview of radio broadcasters you can receive in Hamburg.
Independent radio
FSK 93.0 (German only)
Tide 96.0 (German only)
Public radio
The NDR (German only) umbrella covers a wide variety of channels, such as NDR Info, NDR Info Spezial, NDR 2, NDR Kultur, N-Joy, NDR Blue, NDR 90,3 (City) NDR Traffic (traffic news)
Deutschlandradio (Deutschlandradio Kultur, DRadio Wissen, Deutschlandfunk)
Commercial radio
NDR 90,3 (German only)
Alsterradio (German only)
Deltaradio (German only)
Hamburg Zwei (German only)
Radio Energy (German only)
Klassik Radio (German only)
Radio Hamburg (German only)
917xFM (German only)