Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) will discontinue its Greek-language service, merge parts of its German output and eliminate around 160 full-time positions after the federal government reduced its 2026 subsidy, forcing savings of €21 million.
The decision was taken at a joint special session of the Broadcasting Council, Administrative Board and Management, which adopted a comprehensive package to implement the cuts. In the 2026 federal budget, the German government reduced its subsidy to DW by €10 million to €415 million. A further €11 million gap results from the failure to offset collective wage increases, bringing the total savings requirement to €21 million. There will be no compulsory redundancies, according to the broadcaster.
DW’s Greek-language service will be discontinued. The outlet had provided information to audiences in Greece for more than 60 years, including during the military dictatorship, and served as a channel of dialogue during the euro crisis. The broadcaster said Greece’s status as an EU member state with a stable and diverse media landscape was a factor in the decision.
The German-language offering will also be restructured. The journalistic product DW German and the language-learning service DW Learn German will be merged, with the budget for the combined unit nearly halved. The new format will integrate journalism and language-learning elements, focusing primarily on learners at B1/B2 level and targeting audiences outside the DACH region, including participants in pre-integration programmes abroad.
Beyond Greece, DW will scale back its journalistic portfolio in several areas. Budgets will be reduced for Portuguese for Africa and Dari/Pashto for Afghanistan. The number of editions of the Spanish-language TV news will be lowered, although primetime broadcasts will remain unchanged.
Several programmes will be discontinued, including the Russian-language satire magazine Zapovednik, the arts and culture show Arts Unveiled, the debate format Auf den Punkt in all language editions, the science magazine Tomorrow Today in Portuguese for Brazil, the environmental strand Eco Africa in Portuguese, and the Europe-focused magazine Europeo in all seven language editions.
More than one-third of the savings will come from infrastructure and administration, including cost reductions using AI. Professional training programmes, events, technical equipment, app development and building renovations will face cuts. The expansion of new international correspondents’ offices will be slowed, and production and distribution costs further reduced.
Dr Karl Jüsten, Chair of the Broadcasting Council, said the reductions would weaken Germany’s international voice: “DW must remain a strong voice for freedom, especially in restricted media markets such as Russia and Iran. To do that, it needs reliable, long-term funding,” he said. “Due to the cuts, the broadcaster will have to expect significant losses in reach. This is particularly troubling, as Russia and China are investing heavily in their state-run propaganda outlets while the US withdrawal from international broadcasting is creating further gaps.”
Dr Achim Dercks, Chair of the Administrative Board, said the latest cuts followed a €20 million savings package implemented two years ago, despite a coalition pledge to strengthen the broadcaster. “Without restoring its funding in the 2027 Federal Budget, rising costs across nearly all areas threaten to lead to long-term damage to journalistic quality, technical infrastructure and reach,” he said. “It is only with adequate funding that Deutsche Welle will be able to successfully make its contribution to free reporting and against disinformation.”
DW Director General Barbara Massing described the measures as “extremely painful” and warned they would weaken DW’s competitiveness: “At the same time, we will continue to advance DW’s quality initiative and digital transformation, launched several years ago – albeit at a slower pace,” she said. “Sustainable funding for the future is crucial if we are to fulfil our journalistic mandate in a highly competitive global information space. Now is the time for the government and parliament to set the necessary course together.”
DW provides news and information in 32 languages and reaches 337 million users worldwide each week across TV, online and radio, according to the broadcaster.
