There have never been so many moving pictures of the Olympic Games for German sports fans.

The public television broadcaster ARD / ZDF and the channels of the US group Discovery around Eurosport compete on television and on the Internet.

However, if you want the full selection, you have to pay for it.

What's on TV?

The first begins on July 22nd with the first broadcast day of the men's Olympic football tournament, on which the German team in Group D will play their opening game against Olympic champions Brazil. ZDF is on Friday with the opening ceremony and on Saturday with the first day of the competition. After that, the two channels alternate daily and together offer 275 hours in their main programs. Because of the time difference of seven hours, it starts shortly before or after midnight in Germany. Broadcasts usually end at 5:00 p.m.

Sports fans can watch the Olympics day and night on the themed channel Eurosport.

ARD and ZDF, however, forego their own Olympic programs after 5:00 pm and provide information on current events in Tokyo in their news programs “Tagesthemen” and “heute journal” in Olympic blocks.

In addition to summaries, Eurosport offers two magazines at 5:00 pm and 9:15 pm with the titles "Big in Japan - The Olympic Show" and "Big in Japan - Olympic Late Night".

Where else do ARD, ZDF and Eurosport broadcast?

The public broadcasters offer up to ten parallel live streams on the Internet with almost 1500 hours of coverage, which can also be seen in the respective media libraries.

Eurosport is showing an extensive program from Tokyo via the streaming platforms Joyn and the paid Joyn Plus + (up to 27 parallel streams).

Why are three channels showing the games?

The US company Discovery surprisingly bought the European media rights for the four Olympic Games until 2024 from the IOC for 1.3 billion euros.

An agreement with ARD and ZDF was only reached two years later - after negotiations had initially been broken off.

Are there again restrictions for ARD / ZDF?

After the rights deal with Discovery in August 2017, ARD and ZDF were not allowed to show all sports live at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

These included snowboarding, short track, figure skating and the majority of ice hockey games.

There are no such restrictions this time, the first and second are free to choose.

Who are the moderators?

Alexander Bommes and Jessy Wellmer will conduct the Olympic live broadcasts from Tokyo for ARD and Katrin Müller-Hohenstein and Rudi Cerne for ZDF.

The “Big in Japan” magazines are presented by Olympic gymnastics champions Fabian Hambüchen and Gerhard Leinauer - albeit from the Eurosport headquarters in Unterföhring.

Who are the experts?

ARD is sending two experienced professionals to Japan: Beach volleyball Olympic champion Julius Brink and Frank Busemann, second in the decathlon in 1996. The ZDF explainers are Brink's gold partner Jonas Reckermann, the former hockey player Philipp Crone, the former swimmer Christian Keller, Ronny Ziesmer for gymnastics and the two-time Olympic champion Kristina Vogel for track cycling.

Eurosport and Discovery have almost put together their own Olympic team of experts. Almost 50 athletes and coaches comment on the events of the Olympics, some from Tokyo and some from home, and cover almost all sports. The list ranges from Hambüchen to Olympic judo champion Ole Bischof, world show jumping champion Simone Blum, two-time long jump Olympic champion Heike Drechsler and former handball world champion Pascal Hens to Olympic hockey champion Fanny Rinne and fencing Olympic champion Britta Heidemann.