Initially broadcast three times a week, the programme expanded in 1956 to air Monday to Saturday, with Sunday editions beginning in 1961.

Currently, the bulletin is produced by NDR (Northern German Broadcasting) through ARD-aktuell (the ARD's news department) from its studios in Hamburg.

The end of the 20:00 bulletin, at 20:15, marks the beginning of prime time on German television, in which both ARD and ZDF end commercial advertising on Monday through Saturday evenings (the clock with hours, minutes, and seconds is shown in the last ad break, a final in-clock ad is aired before the chime).

This blackout would have been for the first (and only) time in its history, but the Rundschau from Bavaria, produced by Bayerisches Fernsehen (Bavarian Television) in Munich, helped out as a substitute program.

The long-term study of the Otto Brenner Stiftung by Hans-Jürgen Arlt and Wolfgang Storz from March 2010 on "Business Journalism during the crisis - The mass media handling of the financial market policy" analyzed working methods of the news broadcasts from 1999 to fall 2009, especially in news formats like Tagesschau and Tagesthemen.

The study arrives at the conclusion that these formats failed during the crisis, due to the editorial team's lack of different perspectives, focusing solely on representatives of the German government, banks, some scientists and their points of view.

ARD announced their intent to engage a "quality manager" henceforth to deal with the growing public criticism of their decisions.