FrankenPlus

FrankenPlus is the kind of channel that feels programmed for a specific town square, not a national audience. Its schedule mixes locally produced magazine shows, regional news bulletins, and reruns of older German comedies you won't find on RTL or Sat.1. The afternoon block skews older: health segments, gardening tips, cooking demos with local chefs. Primetime brings the strange stuff: a belote tournament broadcast in full, a folk music singalong from a village hall, and occasionally a Bavarian crime drama that looks like it was shot on a budget of three beers and a handshake. No English support, so you'll need German fluency. But for anyone wanting to see what local German broadcasting looks like away from the big networks, FrankenPlus delivers a slice of life you won't get elsewhere. The ads are hilariously local too: car dealerships, orthopedic shoe stores, the same regional bank commercial every 12 minutes. It's not slick. That's the point. You can watch FrankenPlus live through Tvivu, a service that gives you access to this quintessential example of general TV in Germany.