ARD (broadcaster) in the context of "Sign-on"

A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries except Canada), which is the sequence of operations involved when a radio or television station shuts down its transmitters and goes off the air for a predetermined period; generally, this occurs during the overnight hours although a broadcaster's digital specialty or sub-channels may sign-on and sign-off at significantly different times than its main channels.

Like other television programming, sign-on and sign-off sequences can be initiated by a broadcast automation system, and automatic transmission systems can turn the carrier signal and transmitter on/off by remote control.

A broadcast network (sometimes called a terrestrial network) is a group of radio stations, television stations, or other electronic media outlets, that form an agreement to air, or broadcast, content from a centralized source. For example, ABCTooltip American Broadcasting Company, CBSTooltip CBS and NBCTooltip NBC (U.S.), CBC/Radio-CanadaTooltip Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada), the BBC (UK), the ABCTooltip Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia), ARD (Germany), PTVTooltip People's Television Network and IBCTooltip Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (Philippines), KBSTooltip Korean Broadcasting System (South Korea), and NHK (Japan) are TV networks that provide programming for local terrestrial television station affiliates to air using signals that can be picked up by the home television sets of local viewers. Networks generally, but not always, operate on a national scale; that is, they cover an entire country.

Streaming media, Internet radio, and webcasting are sometimes considered forms of broadcasting despite the lack of terrestrial stations; its practitioners may also be called "broadcasters" or even "broadcast networks".

Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (pronounced [ˈmɪtl̩ˌdɔʏtʃɐ ˈʁʊntfʊŋk]; "Central German Broadcasting"), shortened to MDR (pronounced [ˌɛmdeːˈʔɛʁ] ; stylized as mdr), is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. Established in January 1991, its headquarters are in Leipzig, with regional studios in Dresden, Erfurt and Magdeburg. MDR is a member of the ARD consortium of public broadcasters in Germany.

MDR broadcasts its own television channel to the three states it serves and also contributes programming to the first German TV channel (Das Erste), and broadcasts a number of radio channels.

A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign country. The term "correspondent" refers to the original practice of filing news reports via postal letter. The largest networks of correspondents belong to ARD (Germany) and BBC (UK).

Bayerischer Rundfunk (pronounced [ˈbaɪʁɪʃɐ ˈʁʊntfʊŋk]; "Bavarian Broadcasting"), shortened to BR (pronounced [beːˈʔɛʁ] ), is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcasters in Germany.