Channel identity
Choose the English schedule deliberately
DW publishes an English weekly programme guide and separate dated monthly schedules. The page checked for this guide links the week from 31 October to 6 November 2026 and a November 2026 monthly PDF. Those dates describe the documents checked, not a permanent timetable for future visits.
The language menu on DW’s wider website offers many editorial editions. A language available on the website is not automatically the name of the television schedule you have downloaded. Confirm “DW English” on the schedule itself before comparing its programme sequence with a channel in your player.
The printed clock is the starting point
The November 2026 PDF labels its times UTC/GMT and prints local offset examples. It also marks first broadcasts in bold and warns that programming can change. A number in that document therefore needs its date and time basis; it is not necessarily the clock already shown by your player.
As a clearly hypothetical calculation using that November document’s printed examples, an 18:00 UTC entry corresponds to 18:00 in London and 19:00 in Berlin. This illustrates how to read the stated offsets; it does not announce a real programme at that time. Use an up-to-date dated conversion for another location or another month.
Avoid applying the same conversion twice
First determine whether your electronic programme guide already displays local time. Compare a known point against the broadcaster’s dated listing. If the player has already converted a UTC schedule, adding another manual hour can create the very mismatch you are trying to fix.
Keep the original guide setting and test one change at a time. Write down the publisher time basis, the device’s local clock and the displayed programme time. A whole channel consistently shifted by an hour is a different observation from one documentary carrying a different title or a breaking-news segment replacing the advertised programme.
A repeat and an on-demand item have different boundaries
Bold first-broadcast notation helps distinguish a premiere listing from another scheduled showing. An on-demand report may also have a separate title page and duration. Do not assume that selecting a report from the website recreates the entire linear hour in which it originally aired.
When you cannot find a programme, retain its exact title, the schedule date, the listed UTC time and whether it was marked as a first broadcast. Then check the publisher’s current video page and any revised schedule. This gives you a useful next step without immediately changing global time-zone or playback settings.
DW’s reception page and current schedule links are better maintenance points than a copied month-long grid inside another website. Keep a bookmark to the publisher and replace an old PDF when planning a new week. The dated example here explains the process while leaving current programme decisions with the broadcaster.
Questions answered
Are DW’s printed UTC times automatically my player’s local times?
No. Read the document’s stated time basis and determine whether the player has already converted the guide.
Can an old monthly PDF prove what is airing today?
No. Use the current dated publisher schedule and any updates; the broadcaster says programming can change.
Sources & further reading
Official references for the subjects discussed. Service terms and device software can change.