I often have criticism of public TV in Germany.....for varying reasons. I could probably write a forty-page essay over design, failures, and efforts of the public TV structure.
I noticed that Focus (the German news magazine) brought up the topic in a very short piece...noting that six German states had sent a letter to ARD/ZDF (the two public networks) and asking them to go and focus on their core mission (information, culture and education).
The six states? Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.
The 'push' here is to tell the public TV manager to lessen their efforts to be entertainment giants (game-shows, movie production, etc), and do exactly what it says in the creation document (going back to the 1950s).
What some folks have noticed is that the governor's board that leads the two networks around....has proposed more development into data-streaming, and that these shows developed.....would be loaded up and delivered to customers. They are moving toward the direction to be like Amazon or Netflix. I suspect the two public networks want that angle, and that the governor's board just kinda worked it into a general order.
The six states? They have one representative each on the governor's board, but there's over sixty members to the board....so they can't really push the networks around.
If ARD and ZDF did curtail their entertainment agenda, and went toward information, culture and education? I suspect viewership would start to drift downward. The budget of the entertainment folks would go down, and you probably could cut the TV tax (monthly) to 12 to 14 Euro (presently 17.99).
Having both ARD and ZDF fight over this suggestion? Oh, I'd go and bet on them saying 'no'. They would both go and view this as damaging their brand and giving them lesser viewers. The problem though.....is that they were supposed to be....from day one on, known for content involving culture, education, and information.
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