ZDF director rejects merger with ARD - concern for diversity of opinion

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ZDF director Thomas Bellut has expressed criticism of the proposal to merge the public broadcasters in Germany.

Bellut told the newspapers of the VRM group in Mainz (Wednesday) that this was not possible because of the different functions of ARD and ZDF.

The ZDF has a national mandate, the ARD is a working group of important regional broadcasters with a chair that changes every two years.

The director sees “no market or business sense” in an association.

The proposal to merge the houses of ARD and ZDF has recently been taken up again and again, recently, for example, by the SME union of the CDU and CSU.

In addition to the merger of ARD and ZDF, the association of medium-sized politicians had proposed reducing the entertainment and sports programs and establishing new management and supervisory structures.

The radio license fee is also expected to decrease.

The broadcasters should become more mobile, leaner and offer more information.

WELT reported on the paper.

Media policy is essentially a country issue.

In the Broadcasting Commission, the federal states are currently pushing their plans to reform the mandate and structure of public broadcasting, also with a view to saving potential.

Critics are calling for a streamlining of public service broadcasting and lower fees.

Most recently, Saxony-Anhalt stopped the planned increase in broadcasting fees, contrary to the position of all other federal states.

"Do not restrict diversity of opinion"

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Bellut, however, fears negative effects on media diversity as a result of a merger: "I am a clear advocate of a quality competition for the main programs of ZDF and ARD," said Bellut.

Diversity of opinion must be preserved and not restricted without necessity.

In the interview, the ZDF director also mentioned existing collaborations with other broadcasters.

Saving is good and important, for example through a collaboration with ARD broadcasters such as Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) in the production of “Morgenmagazin” and “Mittagsmagazin” in a studio.

"We should exhaust all possibilities to get the costs under control," said Bellut, who will stop as ZDF director in March 2022 and will not apply for a third term.