Public TV Story

 For those who weren't aware....public TV in Germany is under a fair amount of pressure.  It's coming from three angles.

First, ARD (the controller of the public TV 'empire') wanted a 'payraise' last year (from currently 17.50 Euro a month per residence).  They have to have permission from all sixteen states (not a majority..ALL of them). Fifteen agreed....one said 'no', mostly because they'd told them to reorganize back seven years ago, and they failed to reorganize in the seven year period.  It would be correct to say that ARD was extremely peeved that this re-org demand came up again.

Second, the governor's board over them (non-ARD employees)....has been pushing them along each year to evolve/change.  The mindset of most ARD managers/executives has not been fully drawn into the evolution stage.

Third, to be frank....young Germans aren't interested in public TV and are negative about the monthly TV/media tax business.  A lot of them would prefer that ARD get trimmed down in size, and the tax ought to be cut in half.  In the next ten years....those folks might have a majority of voters lined up to do serious damage to public TV.  

So I noticed this morning a Focus article talking about this whole thing.  New problem has erupted.

Based on some polling....the executives at ARD  came to this new evolutionary concept.  Consumers think there's too much news going on via ARD/ZDF (the two public TV networks).  It's not just nightly news that is being criticized....it's the 'magazine' format (there's around six news-related programs....(Panorama, Monitor, Kontraste, Fakt, Report Mainz and Report Munich).

The blunt side of this discussion....fair number of younger people commented that there's way too much news going on, and they'd prefer shows, movies, regular non-news stuff.

So the ARD executives came up with an order.  Cuts on news content.

Man, that got the news-journalists all hyped-up.  They wrote up a letter and had a bunch of them sign it....that this was totally wrong.  They didn't want their programming replaced with sports shows or such.  They also felt their news formats were fighting the terrible 'fake-news' stuff.

Behind all of this....if the evolution were to occur, you could probably dismiss around 20-percent of the journalists currently working for ARD/ZDF.

The concept of news documentary pieces?  The executives see those expanding out.  I would guess and say that around six to eight a week come out....mostly something done by a three-man team....one simple subject....with a day to six months of filming involved to tell a story.  Some of these, I'd rate four-star.  Some....one-star.  They tend to run 30 to 40 minutes, and just tell a story.

How much news, public forum shows, and news documentary pieces run now off ARD/ZDF?  It's probably forty hours per week between the two but this would mean from 6 AM to midnight.

If you asked me personally....is there too much news now on public TV?  I'd say that the content is questionable, and if I'm not accepting it.....I just flip the channel to one of the eight commercial networks, or to Disney-Plus/Netflix.  

So to the final order that was discussed by the executives....there's a Sunday night show (usually around 10:15 PM) which is called Tagespiegel.  It's mostly international news chatter...picking out the four top items of the week and spending around six to nine minutes on each one.  The executives said....move it to Monday nights....10:50 PM (yeah, real late, but you could record it and play it later).  

The journalists at ARD/ZDF went crazy over that idea.  The 10:50 PM Monday slot?  Most Germans would be asleep by that point.  How many folks watch this currently?  Unknown....that's something might be interesting to know.

Where is all of this heading?  The executives of ARD probably aren't happy with the public sentiment....that they must evolve.  But the journalists are even less happy....feeling the pressure is on and some of them might be cast off into the 'wilderness'.  Consumers are just standing there....paying for something of value around 17.50 Euro a month, and questioning why they have to pay for something that they don't watch.