CeBIT – HANOVER – In an attempt to lure young viewers German public broadcaster is going all-out with ‘new media’ offering a wide range of new services. These include the online ZDF Mediathek, daily podcasts and mobile TV on DVB-H, DMB and UMTS. On DTT the broadcaster also offers ZDF Digitext.
ZDF is offering an online catch-up service called ZDF Mediathek, which gives viewers the opportunity to watch programmes from the past seven days. “We plan to have at least 50% of our programmes from the past seven days available on this service,” said a spokesperson for the channel, “we will offer all programmes for which we own the online rights.” Unfortunately this does not include sports coverage. A full launch of the ZDF Mediathek is planned at this year’s IFA in Berlin.The service is available in two versions, one online using a web browser and Windows Media Player, the other as part of the Windows Media Center portal.
ZDF has also started to broadcast its daily Heute newscast as a video podcast available for download and later viewing. The channel is now also commercially available on the DMB service from Deutsche Mobilen Fernsehen (DMF) and on various UMTS servcies and on trial on DVB-H. “On mobile TV we will not be the broadcaster ourselves, but offer our channel for free to every platform,” according to a spokesperson. It is the strict policy of all German public broadcasters to make their programmes and channels available free of charge to all possible media.
