In 1991, Frey went to Washington, D.C. as a correspondent and deputy head of the ZDF studio there, where he reported on the Gulf War.

He developed the daily journal heute – in Europa and authored the foreign reports Wer rettet Russland?

As editor-in-chief, he introduced the new series ZDFzoom and ZDFzeit, and was committed to the development of the digital channel ZDFinfo and the broadcaster's online strategy.

Since Peter Frey's election as editor-in-chief, Shakuntala Banerjee, Sophie Burkhardt,[5] Benjamin Daniel, Frederic Huwendiek,[6] and Miriam Steimer have served as program speakers for him.

[7][8] As an author, speaker and panelist, Peter Frey has commented on the topics of international relations, European integration, German domestic politics, German culture of remembrance and professional ethical questions in journalism and the development prospects of television.

Frey has been a fellow at the Center for Applied Political Research at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich since 2006.