TV Chatter

 Wolfram Weimer wrote up what I'd call a five star column today for the Focus magazine folks.  The topic...what the German public is frustrated over, with public TV.  I'd strongly recommend a read of the column.

Recently, the TV tax got brought up, and public TV managers wanted a 86-cent rise in the tax.  With one state of the sixteen saying no.....the rise in the tax is stalled now.

What Weimer points out...8-billion Euro flows into the TV business (ARD/ZDF) and the public radio folks.

Using computer resources over the last year....the public TV folks tracked down half-a-million users, who weren't paying into the pot, and 'scared' them enough to pay (using legal means).

Weimer brings up four key issues:

1.  Netflex, Amazon, and Sky (streaming video) are taking over the entire audience (at least with Germans under the age of 30).  It's hard to find anyone under the age of 30 who watches more than three hours a week.  Some of the over-80 crowd still think they have only two channels around to watch....blazing away at 16 hours a day for ZDF or ARD.  

2.  The audience that is attracted to ZDF, ARD and Deutsch radio....are growing old, day by day.  The governor's board has told public TV/radio for the past five years....it's got to do something serious to get a youth audience or face a hostile group who have the political strength to tear apart the whole public TV system.

3.  The ARD and ZDF 'teams' are too politicized.  In this point, it's like being in a conference of 'used-car' dealers and getting political chit-chat almost nightly.  They are literally begging to get you energized and all hot on this topic or this agenda....related to this party, or this lobby group.

4.  Finally, there is 'old' feeling with ZDF and ARD.  When they make movies....it's fitting one of five storylines (murder mystery, some Bavarian farm humor piece, some urban-love found-love lost soap opera-like story, some WW II theme, some social topic theme that they can run a talk-show after the movie to discuss a public problem).  Don't bring up science fiction (they'd freak out).  

Weimer even brings up the stupid 'label' that has stuck to both ARD/ZDF....that they seem to be addicted to making crime dramas where 70-odd people a week are whacked  (if you were to watch every single harsh drama on ARD/ZDF).  Around two years ago....there was a 90-minute piece done where 45-odd people were killed in a two-day period around Wiesbaden.  My wife (German in nature) threatened toward the middle of this to turn the TV off because this was just crazy stupid drama with no relationship to reality.

Then toward the end....Weimer hits one key component of this discussion....trust in TV media has decreased.  He's aiming directly at ARD when he says this....talking of the political slant of 92-percent of the journalists for the network lean left or hard-left.  

Progressing toward some change to align with the general public?  I'd say we are at a junction where it's virtually too late to bring the management in for this real change. 

Within ten years, there will be enough votes for some alternate political group to make one of the top three priorities....either downsizing public TV, or making them run commercials entirely (with no tax).  

What needs to happen?  I would suggest five key things:

1.  Force the sports folks to get out of bidding for soccer, Formula-One racing, the Olympics, and high-cost sports.  

2.  Tell the ARD/ZDF TV news people to organize into one single network....picking whichever one they want to survive.  The other will go primary toward sports or entertainment, or game-shows.  

3.  If they can't get the political chat shows to align with left-right situations....then limit them to four hours a week between ARD and ZDF.  It might help to bring on regular people once in a while as well.

4.  Tell the management folks for each ten murder mystery movies made....one science fiction movie has to be produced.  Even if they did weird space aliens or some time-traveler story.....it'd be better than shooting 45 folks dead in 48 hours in Wiesbaden.  

5.  Finally, revert the tax back to 10-Euro a month, and trim off five or six of these networks run with no real viewers (Neo for example).