tagesschau24 to launch on 1 May

German public broadcaster ARD will carry out the planned name change of its digital TV channel EinsExtra to tagesschau24 on 1 May 2012, rapidtvnews.com reports.

The channel’s content will remain unchanged, broadcasting ARD’s news programme Tagesschau every 15 minutes.

Through the name change, which was announced in mid-March, the channel wants to signal more clearly to its viewers what they can expect in the programme schedule.

The Tagesschau editions on the digital channel will be produced by the same editorial team at ARD-aktuell in Hamburg which also compiles the Tagesschau newscasts on ARD’s main channel Das Erste.

Online service Eins-Extra.de will be closed down. The channel can already be received as a live-stream on the Tagesschau website at Tagesschau.de.

ARD’s digital news channel currently reaches an average of around 700,000 viewers per day.