page_title: Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor
section_title: Television
hierarchical_section_title: Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor / Television
context_page_description: RIAS was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War II in 1946 to provide the German population in and around Berlin with news and political reporting.
context_section_description: RIAS-TV, began broadcasting (as a part-time optout on the terrestrial frequency of SAT.1) from West Berlin in August 1988. Prior to this there were no Western television broadcasts specifically targeted at East Germany although many of the domestic West German TV networks (particularly ARD) had high power transmitters along the border and could be received throughout most of East where many of their programmes attracted a larger audience than the official East German domestic broadcasters.
  The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification the following year meant that RIAS-TV would be short lived. In 1992 Deutsche Welle (Germany's International broadcaster) inherited the RIAS-TV broadcast facilities, using them to start a German, English and Spanish language television channel broadcast via satellite.
caption: Penetration of West German TV reception (grey) in East Germany for ARD (regional channels  NDR, HR, BR and SFB) . Areas with no reception (black) were jokingly referred to as "Valley of the Clueless" (Tal der Ahnungslosen) while ARD was said to stand for "Außer Rügen und Dresden" (Except Rügen and Dresden).