ZDF Television Council: Reforms must not jeopardize the program's quality

The ZDF Television Council is extremely skeptical of the federal states' proposal to reform public broadcasting. The planned restriction of the offer would "not do justice to the claim of offering a program for all social groups", complained the chairwoman of the committee, Gerda Hasselfeldt (CSU), on Friday after a debate on the plan.

The former federal minister emphasized that media policy should not pass the buck to the broadcasters: "That does not correspond to our democratic understanding". In the end, politicians must feel responsible for unpleasant decisions. She very much hopes that the discussion will be conducted objectively in the coming weeks. According to the 74-year-old, deleting channels would worsen the offering and therefore also acceptance. The many people who continue to watch linear television should not be left behind.

Television Council sees "incalculable risk"

The Television Council monitors the Second Channel's program and advises the Director General on relevant issues. On Thursday, the 60-member body published a resolution in which it warned of an "incalculable risk" in the removal of established channels, as this could also put social groups disadvantaged.

Such steps would "make a mockery of the reform's goal of bringing about an improvement". The Broadcasting Commission of the federal states is in favor of merging the Phoenix, tagesschau24, ARD alpha and ZDFinfo channels into one or two joint information and educational offerings. The channels Arte and 3sat, which specialize in culture, are also to be merged. ZDFneo and One.

Putting financing on a new footing

The Chairwoman of the ZDF Board of Directors, former Rhineland-Palatinate Minister-President Malu Dreyer (SPD), believes it is urgently necessary to put the financing of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio on a new footing and thus make the broadcasters "weatherproof". This time, however, the federal states skipped this point in the form of a controversial new contribution increase. According to Dreyer, ZDFneo and ZDFinfo should be retained.

ZDF Director General Norbert Himmler welcomed the fact that the Commission was pressing ahead with the reform: "It is good that the quality of the mandate is to be strengthened". However, he had no understanding for the fact that "in politically and socially turbulent times, consideration is being given to eliminating successful and socially relevant channels across the board".

Himmler described Phoenix as "indispensable for forming political opinions" due to its live broadcasts of party conferences, for example. Diversity should not suffer a setback, especially now. The debate should be guided by the criteria of quality, efficiency and success.

The Television Council praised the "strategic transformation of ZDF" and in particular the broadcaster's successful digital and partner channels. The federal states, on the other hand, are relying on limiting the range of digital distribution channels such as apps, media libraries and web radios according to criteria of necessity and economic efficiency.

(nen)