Overview
- On Sunday 27 September ARD preempted its usual 20:15 Tatort broadcast to air the Nations League match Germany v Greece with on-site presenters Esther Sedlaczek and Bastian Schweinsteiger and a post-match Caren Miosga talk show featuring Robert Habeck.
- The Tatort season had already resumed after a 19-week summer break with the Hannover episode 'König in Gelb,' which was released early in the ARD‑Mediathek before its linear TV airing.
- ARD has adopted a new release policy that makes new Tatort and Polizeiruf 110 episodes available to registered users in the ARD‑Mediathek from the Friday before the TV broadcast, a shift the program director framed as serving changing viewer habits.
- Broadcasters cited the ‘Klopp effect’ and the expectation of very large live audiences — his debut in Amsterdam drew reported viewership above ten million — as the reason for disrupting Tatort’s ritualised Sunday slot, a decision that follows visible viewer frustration over the long summer pause.
- The Tatort lineup returns to the schedule on 4 October with Ludwigshafen’s 'Explosive Mischung,' but the episode rollout and ARD’s new Mediathek-first approach will be watched for signs that appointment viewing is giving way to streaming and sports-driven scheduling shifts.