Public TV Chatter

 If you can pick up a Thursday edition of WELT.....there's a commentary by Ulf Poschardt.....centering on ARD/ZDF (the two public TV networks for Germany). I'd strongly recommend a read.

The blunt statement?  In someway, you need public TV, but it's become a one-sided network of commentary.  Ulf even points out that members of the both organizations are shaking their heads on the fundamental direction used by the leadership of the two networks.

If you went to most Germans and asked how both networks came to be.....they know the story over ARD's creation, and how it leads back to Hamburg and the BBC.  

The ZDF story?  I doubt if you can find more than 1-percent of the population that knows how they were created, and how they were 'consumed' by ARD in the early 1960s.  

My three primary opinions of public TV in Germany?

1.  They are managed by a 'board' of governors, who rarely get into the middle of things.  There's been a couple of times, when they stepped in and corrected the behavior or management decision of ARD.  But it's generally a hands-off approach.

2.  Both networks are stuck.....they have a dozen varieties of audience to make happy, and they can only do so much.  At some point, they carve out a new sub-network....just for that age group, and invent a new expense issue.  For a lot of folks, when you state the 8-billion Euro cost to run things....Germans are a bit shocked.

3.  Among the 15-to-30 year old group.....it's a fairly low number who view anything.  My son (just over 30) will tell you he hasn't watched an hour of public TV since age six.  Among these people....they have zero interest in paying the monthly TV tax.  Most pay for Netflix or WOW-TV, as a streaming service. 

A reform needed?  I would agree, but both networks would fight this tooth and nail.