German public broadcaster ARD wants to decide by the end of the year which linear TV channel it will discontinue as part of its cost-saving measures.
“In fact, there is no final decision yet. ARD will transfer one linear channel to digital. The whole issue is a complicated legal process in which state treaties are partly affected,” an ARD spokeswoman told German industry publication Cable!vision Europe.
“The 3rd Media Amendment State Treaty, which allows the transition, has just come into force. We will have a result before the end of the year and will inform accordingly.” The ARD spokeswoman did not want to comment on the question of whether the affected channel would then be closed in 2023 or, later than anticipated, in 2024: “A date has not yet been set.”
ARD chairman Kai Gniffke had announced in January 2023 at a hearing on the media amendment treaty in the parliament of federal state Saxony that the broadcaster would discontinue a linear channel by the end of the year. He did not provide further details.
ARD operates the thematic channels tagesschau24, ARD-alpha and One. Industry insiders consider it most likely that One will be discontinued as a linear channel and that its content will be subsequently distributed on catch-up services, YouTube and other non-linear platforms, since the channel targets a younger, digital-savvy audience anyway, according to the report.
