Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 12, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
It is to be expanded into a programming service aimed at young families. The primary target audience is therefore viewers aged between 25 and 50 and their children. The plan is to create a high-quality, diverse public-service alternative to the commercial broadcasters’ programming predominantly watched by this age group. The focus will be on education, culture, science, advice, information and entertainment.
The ZDFtheaterkanal is also to be adapted to the conditions of digital television development. Its existing looped schedule, consisting mainly of repeats, is to be replaced by a structured overall programme. This digital ZDF cultural channel would be dedicated to showcasing cultural diversity while also offering formats capable of reaching a younger audience. Its existing coverage of theatre, ballet, musical theatre, concerts, performance culture, major regional cultural festivals and outstanding cultural competitions is to be supplemented by additional educational programming and opened up to younger topics, for example through a daily youth-culture programme.
To strengthen its information expertise, the heute.de news portal is to be developed further. Closely linked to the digital information channel, it will allow ZDF’s informational services to reach younger and middle-aged audience groups online more effectively than before. The ZDFmediathek, which has made around 50 percent of the main channel’s programmes available on demand since last year’s relaunch, is in future to include as many of the broadcaster’s in-house and commissioned productions as possible. ZDF Director-General Markus Schächter made clear to the Television Council that the planned changes would be financed from ongoing operations and that no additional funding requirement would be submitted to the KEF.
Schächter said: “This is not about ‘expansion’, but about adapting ZDF’s services to the requirements of the digital world. Only in this way do we have a realistic chance of fulfilling our journalistic remit in the digital future and once again reaching younger people more effectively with our public-service content. We can and will achieve this within the existing framework, without placing any additional burden on licence-fee payers.” Germany’s federal states have indicated that the public-service digital channels will receive a specific mandate in the 12th Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty. In May, ZDF was asked to develop corresponding programming concepts. The proposal now presented to the Television Council was referred to the relevant committees for further discussion and is to receive final consideration at the next meeting in October. ZDF has previously set out its digital strategy to the Television Council in four detailed papers and received the council’s approval. The papers covered new distribution channels, new competitors in the digital market, on-demand television (“ZDFmediathek”) and the development of the supplementary digital channels, particularly ZDFinfokanal. The papers are publicly available at “zdf.unternehmen.de”.
