Critics Blast Public Broadcasting

Michael Hedges January 28, 2013 Follow on Twitter

The enduring contradiction in public broadcasting policy is demand versus cost. Various constituents expect high quality programming, everywhere, all the time and lots of it. None of that comes cheap. Finding a balance can be a terrible job.

Abruptly and for “personal reasons” WDR General Director Monika Piel resigned last week. WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) is Germany’s largest regional public broadcasting organization. Ms Piel was appointed to a six-year term in 2007, which was extended last May for an additional six years beginning this April. She served as rotating chairman of public television network ARD for two years from 2011.

The news, coming at the end of Friday (January 25), caught one and all off guard. WDR Council President Ruth Hieronymi called the announcement a “surprising decision” and said the Council would convene immediately to fill the vacancy. “No one would have guessed it,” said WDR board member Andrea Verpoorten to Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (January 26). “Nobody knows why.” North Rhine-Westphalia Minister-President Hannelore Kraft called it “disturbing news.”

Most German media watchers accepted Ms Piel’s decision as “personal” with some speculating that two years at the helm of ARD took its toll. Hours before her announcement German business daily Handelsblatt published a long exposé on the soaring cost of public television, then off-handedly took some credit for the resignation. German publishers fell out of love with public broadcasting about the time Ms Piel took the helm of ARD. Once seen as an effective foil to a growing private broadcasting sector, ARD, ZDF and the regional public broadcasters are, say the publishers, “the most expensive broadcasting system in the world.”

As head of ARD, Ms Piel took on the powerful German publishers over the ARD news program Tagesschau smartphone app, seen by the publishers as a competitive nightmare. Even after the publishers won a lawsuit that directed ARD to scale back text content the result has been more a truce than a victory for either side. New ARD Chairman Lutz Marmor, from NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk), has that file now.

The biggest challenge facing German public broadcasting, more than simple public relations, follows changes to the household broadcast license fee system that came into effect at the first of the year. The new payment program adds more users to the license fee system and, in turn, will bring revenues to public broadcasting to about €9 billion. In austerity-obsessed Germany, that’s a pile of money to explain.

The Handelsblatt dossier notes that the German household license fee is more costly than similar charges in the UK, France and Italy but about half the amount assessed Swiss residents. Productivity at ARD – hours produced per editor – is but one-quarter that of French public television. Questioned, too, were choirs, bands and orchestras funded through the public broadcasting system as well as nine television channels and 67 radio channels. “The share of Germans who have no interest in folk and brass band music is about a third, but they always appear in prime time.”

The critics also snorted at coverage of minor sports as well as rights fees due for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games and, even, German football. “Are football rights for private television or the public service?” Arts and cultural program funding is cut, said the Handelsbaltt dossier, while the cost of sports programming increases. Daytime soap operas “with silly plotlines,” they say, are for private sector TV.

Always raising public broadcasting critic’s attention – and certainly not limited to Germany – is primetime talent cost. The Handelsblatt dossier reported Günther Jauch’s contract at more than €10 million a year.

Technology did not escape notice. “A lot of money goes into unnecessary technology that no one gets to see… often totally irrational.” Oh, and there’s too much advertising.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media in Germany

Home to Europe's biggest broadcasters and publishers, Germany is a highly competitive media market. Transition to digital television was easy, other media not so simple, unsuprising with Germany's complex regulation and business structures. This Knowledge file reports on media leaders and followers. Includes Resources 214 pages PDF (July 2013)

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