Terra X


Terra X is a brand used by the German public broadcaster ZDF since 2008. Between 1982 and 2008 the brand name was ZDF Expedition. Some topics under the brand Terra X are documentaries about history, nature, archeology, and science. The documentaries are broadcast on Saturdays, 7:30 pm on ZDF. Repeats are also broadcast on ZDFinfo, ZDFneo, Phoenix, Arte, and 3sat.

Background

On 17 January 1982 the first ZDF Expedition documentary was broadcast. In 2008 the name was changed to Terra X. The brand includes documentary series, where a topic will be covered deeper than in usual documentaries. Since the mid 1980s simulations of the past are included for visualization and since 1990s some historical events are re-enact with actors.
Over 40 documentaries are produced per year under the brand of Terra X. The average cost of a 45-minute-film amounts to 250.000 euro. The documentaries of Terra X are sold and broadcast international, for example in National Geographic Channel in the United States.
Terra X is also active in the internet. Beside the ZDF video on demand plattform ZDFmediathek, they are publishing documetaries and clips on plattforms like YouTube. They founded the channel Terra X Lesch & Co with the moderation of Harald Lesch on 3 February 2016. Later that year, their YouTube channel Terra X Natur & Geschichte started on 15 August, where Terra X is publishing full documentaries that are also airing on TV. During the COVID-19 pandemic Terra X started the YouTube channel Terra X statt Schule, where they are publishing different knowledge videos of content that has been already broadcast. In 2019 Terra X published some clips about the topic climate under CC BY 4.0, so that the clips can be also used in Wikipedia.