Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 11, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
“The year 2008 has an outstanding agenda for ZDF.” ZDF Director General Markus Schächter gave this assessment in a keynote speech on the occasion of the adoption of the 2008 budget plan by the ZDF Television Council. Following the important compromise with the EU Commission in the state-aid dispute and the landmark ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court on broadcasting financing, the federal states responsible for media policy would face “fundamental regulatory, media and industrial policy decisions” next year in drafting and adopting the 11th Interstate Broadcasting Treaty. Schächter: “In the coming months, it is about nothing less than defining the conditions for the future viability of public-service broadcasting.”
At the threshold of the digital media society, the major sporting year 2008, with the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship, once again clearly called to mind that international TV sport was the key to digital business models and to the entry of new players from entirely different financial leagues. The inability to regulate international corporate giants would become a pressing problem in the media market, Schächter said.
The fee period, which runs over four years, ends at the end of 2008 without a shortfall. ZDF would thus confidently achieve its financial-strategic goal in this regard, the ZDF Director General emphasized. Following the excellent annual financial statements for 2005 and 2006, ZDF’s budget plan for 2008 ends with a deficit of 79.9 million euros. However, this was not unusual for the final budget year of a fee period, Schächter explained, referring to the stable fee level during a four-year fee period. For 2008, a year characterized by outstanding major sporting events, this was instead a very satisfactory result.
The conclusion of the fee period “with a black zero” was the result of the consistently implemented strict austerity course of recent years, which had, however, also led to a weakening of program reserves and an investment backlog in the technical areas. Schächter: “Here, the digitization that is advancing in great strides also requires a significant increase in investment in the coming years.” Not least, the new news studio currently under construction was a visible sign of the strategic focus in the changing television world.
