Today, we visited Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), a regional public TV and radio station serving the Berlin and Brandenburg area. This station is fairly young: It was the result of the merger between Sender Freies Berlin and Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Berlin in May of 2003. They have six radio stations as well as six television stations.RBB is also one of the 10 stations who are members of the ARD, a consortium of public broadcasting stations in Germany.
Throughout our tour of RBB, we noticed several differences between the broadcasting industry in the U.S. and in Germany.
Public versus private
One major difference is German stations are split almost equally between public and private stations whereas U.S. stations are mostly private. As a result, there is a clearer distinction of stations in Germany: Public ones focus on news and educational programming while private stations focus more on music and entertainment.
Also, public broadcast stations in Germany usually serve specific regions whereas stations in America are usually available to the entire nation. For example, RBB serves the Berlin and Brandenburg area specifically. However, German public stations do collaborate to serve the nation. RBB works with other regional public stations to produce programming for Das Erste ("The First"), the main public TV channel in the country.
A source of public funding: license fees
Another major difference we noticed is in how stations earn revenue. Because there are so many private stations in America, we're used to the idea of selling advertising to stay on the air. In Germany, private stations do sell advertising as well, but they only sell about 10 minutes of commercials per hour.
The more interesting thing is that their public stations are funded through license fees. People are required by law to pay these fees if they receive broadcasting over the radio, television or internet. For example, anyone who owns a television, radio or computer has to pay €18 a month.
Emphasis on quality programming
We also found out that the German public stations emphasize news and producing other educational content. Just as RBB covers the Berlin and Brandenburg area news, the other regional stations report news around the area.But instead of just disseminating the news, RBB also produces its own programming, such as recording classical music. Public stations also regularly air documentaries, political discussions, talk shows and so on.
Our RBB tour guide said the German broadcast industry focuses on quality more than ratings. Even if a program is boring, the station director may decide to produce it if they think it is informative and benefits the public. The quality programming is determined by a board of governors, which include people such as teachers, parents, religious and head of other important social groups. However, the German mass media still maintain their freedom of expression and speech.
From this, we realized that public stations in Germany don't have a problem with lack of revenue that sometimes restricts U.S. public stations from producing quality programming. In the U.S., stations seem willing to throw anything on television that will increase their ratings. This is understandable because they rely on ratings to generate more money through advertising, but is it the best way to run the business? Is it always best for the media to cater to its audience's wants if it lowers the quality of the programming? There seems to be quality of radio and TV shows and their ratings.
Points to ponder
Overall, we thought the tour of RBB was a great learning experience. It made us weigh the pro and cons of both systems. Do profit-driven TV and radio stations produce lower quality programming? Are licensing fees the solution to supporting public stations?
If we consider how both systems operate and understand why they exist differently in the U.S. and Germany, we may even find ways of bettering the broadcast system in the future.
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