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Munich (dpa) - She knows all of the leading German actors and has brought ARD a lot of fame with the worldwide success of the series "Babylon Berlin": Now the boss of the ARD feature film subsidiary Degeto, Christine Strobl, is taking the next step in her career and will take over from Saturday ( May 1st) the ARD program directorate.

In an interview with the German Press Agency, the 49-year-old talks about how she envisions ARD of the future, where she sees room for improvement and how she deals with criticism.

Question: Have you already made a list of the major construction sites at the start of your job?

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Answer: I don't have a list - I only put it on for shopping.

The bottom line is: we have to make it clear to ourselves that we are creating an offer for all population groups.

When I look at our analysis and find that 70 percent of our TV viewers of the classic television program are over 50 years old, it shows me that with this medium alone we basically no longer have a chance of offering something for everyone do.


Question: What do you conclude?


Answer: ... that the ARD media library has to be just as equal in our view as the first German television in order to be able to do justice to the public service mandate of really reaching everyone.

That in turn means that we have to manage a digital conversion.

With resources that are not increasing, to put it carefully.


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Question: Will ARD be primarily a streaming provider in a few years' time?


Answer: We want to be where our viewers are. At the moment we have the situation that the media library is still predominantly taking over the offer of linear television. But there are already first approaches with exclusive offers. In order to bring the media library forward decisively, we have to regularly offer series, films and documentaries for the media library that are competitive. We now have to systematically continue this reorganization, which we initiated a year ago, and regularly create our own and original offers for the media library. And at the same time we have to sharpen the profile of our linear flagship in order to achieve relevance and impact.

Question: Corona has shown that Germans like to watch “Brennpunkt” and “ARD extra” special programs on current events and that they expect that to be there too.

At the moment there is a medium - the "Bild" newspaper with its live video offer on the Internet - which is particularly geared towards topicality - for example with hours of live reporting from the CDU party executive on the fight for the candidacy for chancellor.

Is that something that ARD can learn from?


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Answer: We don't have to learn from Bild Live. We are really good as a group. We have the joint event and documentation channel Phoenix with ZDF, as well as Tagesschau24 as a linear and digital offer and we can stream live in the ARD media library. But in fact we have to be even more closely interlinked in this area. When something of extraordinary importance happens, we are there. We have to make sure that we say very quickly to people who may be watching their beloved series on the first: Warning, something important is happening in the world. You should get a clear indication of where you can find information in the ARD network. If the event has a certain significance, I would also like us to be there very quickly live in the first.


Question: The political debate on reforming the structure and mandate of public service broadcasting is in full swing.

How would you describe the ARD you want?


Answer: ARD has to become a real network with a lot of energy, strength and knowledge, a family in which we exchange ideas and not everyone has to do everything, but in which we set priorities and perhaps also create competence centers in just one place.

It is important that regional diversity does not mean that we do things twice, but rather strengthen the common ways of playing together in a targeted manner.

Then, as a network of exchange and togetherness, we have a great opportunity to be a strong unit.

However, this network has to work together and not in competition.


Question: Is there a heading for it?


Answer: ARD should develop into an attractive and relevant content network.

The main goal is: one offer for everyone - wherever the users want it.


Question: The direct TV competition is ZDF, which has had better TV ratings year-on-year for years.

How do you want to overtake ZDF?


Answer: This is a discussion that for me is somewhat backward-looking.

What depresses me most is that we are not relevant enough for a population group to which the future belongs solely because of the age structure.

That's why my main focus is not so much the competition with ZDF, but rather reaching the entire population.

For me, it is crucial that we, as a public broadcaster network, offer programs for everyone.

Our media library is now on the right track, but we started a little later and the federal structure did not always help on this issue.

But that has to succeed, otherwise people will no longer have us on their radar in a few years.

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Question: Which format do you envy the TV competition for?

ZDF satire show by Jan Böhmermann rather in the first?

Answer: That would be too easy for me.

We have and find our own answers and protagonists.

But it's a good keyword: This famous brainstorming strategy will be something that we should tackle more intensely, especially with regard to the ARD media library.

Before the US presidential election, why did so many people watch the documentation by “Tagesthemen” presenter Ingo Zamperoni about his German-American family in the USA?

Because as a person he has found an emotional approach to this topic that enables a personal perspective.

Maybe we have to look at the competition from time to time, but I always prefer it when we build the heads ourselves.


Question: After the worldwide success of the 1920s series "Babylon Berlin" - how many flagship productions will the Erste have in the future?

Answer: "Babylon Berlin" was the first step towards internationally competitive series projects.

I believe we need these types of programs on a regular basis.

"Babylon Berlin" helped us a lot with future international financing.

When you say: «We made" Babylon Berlin "», someone in the world is listening to you.

We will not be able to get out of Germany to finance large series on our own.

I think we need one or two formats of this size per year.

Question: As Degeto boss, have you ever rejected a script for a project that you then saw on ZDF or RTL?

Answer: Yes, of course there are books that one has read and not seen what is in them.

And then you see the film in another program ...


Question: Can you tell us anything?


Answer: Absolutely not!

At Degeto we have around 1500 fabric proposals a year, of which we can implement around 100.


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Question: There are mistrust reflexes in society - you yourself became a victim of it in social networks when you were appointed as ARD program director.

It is then pointed out that the CDU politician and Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble is your father and CDU Vice-President Thomas Strobl is your husband.

And that you have a CDU party membership card.

How do you answer such critics?


Answer: I am always a bit sorry that my mother is misappropriated.

(laughs) She is a very important personality in my life for me.

But seriously: each of us has a private attitude and has the right to be related.

It has nothing to do with my job and must not have anything to do with it.

I pursue my task in the respective function regardless of my relatives and political stance.

But I have no problem with it when I am asked about it.

I am very much in favor of transparency, because it should not even appear that one has something to do with the other.

Question: Are you itching to film the fight in the Union over the last few weeks for the candidacy for chancellor and if so, with whom is it in the leading roles?

Can Matthias Brandt Söder?


Answer: In fiction I have got used to letting the material hang out a little before you devote yourself to it. For fictional storytelling, it's always good to let a few decades go by. Then you can really judge things better. Ask me again in 30 years.

ABOUT THE PERSON: Christine Strobl (49) will take over as ARD program director on May 1st, succeeding Volker Herres, who will leave early at the end of April.

In her new role, she is responsible for Erste Deutsche Fernsehen, the ARD media library and chairs the newly commissioned video program conference, which is responsible for linear and non-linear video offers.

The lawyer has known the ARD community for a long time - she joined Südwestrundfunk as a trainee in 1999.

In 2007 she took over the management of the TV department for children and family programming and from 2011 the management of the main department for film and family programming at SWR.

In 2012, the move to ARD subsidiary Degeto Film GmbH followed as managing director.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210429-99-396972 / 3

ARD press release on Strobl's appointment (September 2020)