Phoenix (stylised as phoenıx, pronounced [ˈføːnɪks]) is a German free-to-air television channel which is operated jointly by public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF. It broadcasts documentaries, news, special events coverage and discussion programmes. Phoenix's headquarters are in Bonn, the former West German capital.

The creation of Phoenix is credited to the former chancellor Helmut Kohl, who wanted to create a "European Parliamentary Channel". However, the idea was rejected due to criticism by the public channels (ARD and ZDF) and suspicion that political pressure from Kohl could lead to a "Helmut-Kohl-Channel".

The real idea for "Phoenix - Der Ereignis- und Dokumentationskanal" ("Phoenix - the current affairs and documentary channel") came from viewers of ARD and ZDF, who wanted a "media-political correction of faults in the system of information transfer".^{[clarification needed][citation needed]} This created the opportunity to create a "Parliamentary Channel", with the aim of increasing credibility and satisfying consumer demand.

Private channels (RTL and Sat.1) criticized the creation of Phoenix because they were at the time creating their own news channels (n-tv and N24 respectively).

The headquarters of Phoenix were provisionally situated in Cologne. However, in 2000, the headquarters were relocated to studios in Bonn.

Phoenix's highest ratings to date were in August 2006, when it had 1.0% viewer share. With about 4.5 million viewers, it had more viewers than N-TV and N24.

On November 15, 2022, Phoenix closed its SDTV feed across its cable and satellite feeds, which means it is now only available in HD.

In March 2026, it was announced that ARD would close its news channel Tagesschau24 in January 2027 as part a larger-scale consolidation of ARD and ZDF's channel portfolio; Phoenix will become the main news and information channel of the collective under the new branding Phoenix von ARD und ZDF. The rebranded channel will be managed by ARD in partnership with WDR.