german united distributors is a distribution subsidiary of Germany's first public broadcasting company ARD. Founded in 1950 ARD today comprises nine independent regional broadcasters who jointly form the flagship channel 'Das Erste' (First Programme). Furthermore the regional broadcasters run their own channels called 'Third Programmes'.
ARD has also cooperated with other partners to create the cultural channels ARTE and 3sat, the news channel PHOENIX und the children channel KIKA.

german united distributors was founded in 1997 by the broadcasters Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), both leading members of the ARD family. Further shares are held by two of the country's largest production studios, Studio Hamburg and Bavaria Film, aiming to optimize the international marketing potential of their catalogues.
Today, german united distributors is composed of three sales divisions, each one specializing in a particular programming genre with Bavaria Media Television located in Munich, Studio Hamburg Distribution & Marketing headquartered in Hamburg and united docs in Cologne.

All three divisions distribute worldwide not only programmes produced by the shareholding partners but also represent many independent producers from an international background. [ source: www.germanunited.com/en/about.... ]