Sales 2023: €7.671 billion

Overview

The Association of Public Broadcasting Corporations of the Federal Republic of Germany, or ARD for short, is the largest public broadcasting corporation in the world, ahead of the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK (and ahead of France Télévisions, RAI, and ZDF). ARD's revenues from the broadcasting fee and advertising exceed the budgets of most commercial media groups in the traditional television and radio business. However, it is controversial within the ARD conglomerate whether the merger of individual regional broadcasters even counts as a company, in both the economic and cultural sense. Among other things, ARD is responsible for the full-service program Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen, which has operated under the brand name "Das Erste" since April 1996.

General Information

Headquarters:

ARD Program Directorate
Arnulfstrasse 42
80335 Munich
Germany
Telephone: 0049 89 5900-01
website: www.daserste.de

ARD General Secretariat Berlin
Masurenallee 8-14
14057 Berlin
Germany
Telephone: 0049 30 8904 313-11
website: www.ard.de

Branches of trade: Television, radio, online offerings, merchandising
Legal form: unincorporated, public-law working group
Financial year: 01.01. – 31.12.
Founding year: 1950

Basic economic data

		2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Budget/Sales (in million €)		7.670,7	7.180	7.149	6.916	6.983	6.907
Established positions		N/A	20.727	22.271	20.040	19.972	19.096

Revenues and budgets of broadcasting companies (in million €)¹

		2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	Established positions 2022²
Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne		1.699,5	1.565	1.531	1.421	1.490	1.441	3.735
Südwestrundfunk, Stuttgart		1.350	1.288	1.288	1.326	1.273	1.288	3.531
North German Broadcasting, Hamburg		1.217,9	1.049	1.145	1.106	1.145	1.120	3.373
Bavarian Broadcasting, Munich		1.201,6	1.167	1.119	1.070	1.084	1.073	3.104
Central German Broadcasting, Leipzig		803,6	779	787	761	787	771	2.035
Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt		576,7	543	511	507	503	512	1.865
Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin/Potsdam		557,7	532	515	494	488	478	2.092
Saarländischer Rundfunk, Saarbrücken		136	135	133	125	127	128	544
Radio Bremen, Bremen		127,7	122	120	111	111	110	448
In total		7.670,7	7.180	7.149	6.921	7.008	6.917	20.727
ZDF		2.473	2.473	2.397	2.231	2.230	2.234	3.631
Deutschlandradio		289,8	250	253	250	253	233	725

¹ In addition to income from the broadcasting fee, the main source of funding for public broadcasters, the income includes, among other things, income from advertising and sponsorship as well as other income and, in part, income from the ARD financial equalisation scheme (for Saarländischer Rundfunk and Radio Bremen).

² The stated positions do not include positions at spun-off ARD joint facilities, such as ARD-aktuell or the ARD and ZDF-sponsored special interest channels Kinderkanal (Kika) and Phoenix. Furthermore, the figures do not include positions at subsidiaries of public broadcasters, such as the ARD advertising companies.

Revenues and budgets of broadcasters in 2024 according to the broadcasters' budgets (in million €)

The revenues listed in the table above are the final figures from the broadcasters' respective annual reports. Revenues for 2024 can currently only be calculated based on the broadcasters' published budgets. Accordingly, the public broadcasters will have the following total revenues this year:

	2024	2023
West German Broadcasting (WDR)	1.610	1.699,5
Southwest Broadcasting (SWR)	1.316	1.350
North German Broadcasting (NDR)	N/A	1.217,9
Bavarian Broadcasting (BR)	1.133,6	1.201,6
Central German Broadcasting (MDR)	780,6	803,6
Hessischer Rundfunk (HR)	570	576,7
Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)	N/A	557,7
Saarland Broadcasting (SR)	137,1	136
Radio Bremen	N/A	127,7
In total		7.670,7
ZDF	2.492	2.473
Deutschlandradio	N/A	289,8
Public broadcasters in total		10.433,5
Revenues come from the broadcasting fee (around 85 percent), advertising and sponsorship, and other income.

Executives and Directors

ARD Chairmanship and Management:
Hessian Broadcasting
Florian Hager (Artistic Director)
Bertramstrasse 8
60320 Frankfurt am Main
Telephone: 069 / 155-2214
e-mail: intendanz@hr.de

website: http://www.ard.de/die-ard

ARD Press Office
Hessian Broadcasting
Bertramstrasse 8
60320 Frankfurt am Main
e-mail: pressestelle@ard.de

ARD Program Director:
Christine Strobl

ARD Editor-in-Chief:
Oliver Köhr

ARD General Secretariat
Dr. Susanne Pfab
Masurenallee 8-14
14057 Berlin
Telephone: 030 / 8904313-11
e-mail: kontakt@ard-gs.de

Directors of the nine ARD regional broadcasting corporations:

• WDR: Katrin Vernau (since June 27, 2024)
• SWR: Prof. Dr. Kai Gniffke (since September 1, 2019)
• NDR: Hendrik Lünenborg (since May 16, 2025)
• BR: Dr. Katja Wildermuth (since 1 February 2021)
• MDR: Ralf Ludwig (since November 1, 2023)
• HR: Florian Hager (since March 1, 2022)
• RBB: Ulrike Demmer (since September 1, 2023)
• Referee: Martin Grasmück (since May 1, 2021)
• Radio Bremen: Dr. Yvette Gerner (since August 1, 2019)

History

The ARD was founded in June 1950. The ARD's statutes state that the working group's objectives include "dealing with common programming issues as well as common legal, technical, and business-related issues." Founding members were Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Hessischer Rundfunk (HR), Radio Bremen, Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR), Südwestfunk (SWF), the later divided Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), and, in an advisory capacity, the then RIAS Berlin. Analogous to the federal structure of the Federal Republic (culture as a matter for the individual states), the ARD chose the form of a non-legal working group to clearly distinguish itself from the role of the centralized propaganda broadcaster of the Nazi era. However, the model of a loose association of broadcasters of widely varying sizes and volatile political roots also led to complex bureaucratic procedures, new political dependencies, a bureaucratic mentality, and a corresponding lack of responsiveness in the liberalized media market.

The management of the ARD generally changes every two years. The ARD chairman is the director general of the respective managing regional broadcasting corporation. In addition, the ARD maintains a central program directorate in Munich for the coordination and planning of the First German Television (Das Erste Deutsche Fernsehen), whose head – the ARD program director – was long considered the "king without a country." He is largely dependent on the decisions of the director generals. However, ARD program director Günter Struve, who served from 1992 to October 2008, managed, through painstaking detail, to strengthen the position of the Munich branch. He centralized the marketing of Das Erste and exerted significant influence on the entire program structure. Struve's passion was the quantitative success of Das Erste while simultaneously maintaining a public service programming standard. In doing so, he repeatedly faced criticism for having gutted Das Erste's information content in favor of entertainment. In fact, there are only a few eye-catching reports and documentaries left on Das Erste, and they hardly appear at all in prime time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) – and a program reform that came into effect at the beginning of 2006 also reduced the broadcasting time of political magazines from 45 to 30 minutes.

In mid-2006, the ARD created a new staff unit, the General Secretariat, which was located in Berlin and replaced the old ARD office in Frankfurt am Main, founded in 1965. This step also gave the ARD a media policy presence in the capital. The General Secretariat reports directly to the current ARD chairman, and the head of the General Secretariat is intended to support the ARD chairman in his work. According to the job definition, the head of the General Secretariat is responsible for the strategic positioning of the broadcasting network and for external representation of its interests. The head also serves as deputy chair of the ARD Strategy Group. They are also entitled to attend and participate in meetings of all commissions and working groups within the broadcasting network. This also applies to ARD subsidiaries, as well as to meetings of the Television Program Conference and politically relevant ARD committees.

The ARD maintains other central facilities, such as Degeto Film GmbH, based in Frankfurt am Main (for ARD television film production, the rights trading for these films, and for production participation), the German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) based in Potsdam and Frankfurt am Main, and – together with ZDF – the ARD/ZDF Media Academy (which emerged in 2007 from the Central Training of Program Staff/ZFP). The ARD also participates in the Cologne-based "ARD ZDF Deutschlandradio Beitragsservice," which replaced the previous Fee Collection Center (GEZ) in January 2013 and is now responsible for collecting broadcasting fees, according to the latest State Treaty on Broadcasting Fees. The ARD-aktuell editorial team is based at NDR in Hamburg; with around 200 employees, it produces the current TV news programs ("Tagesschau," "Tagesthemen," "Nachtmagazin," "Wochenspiegel"). Otherwise, the federal principle applies to ARD. Individual regional broadcasters are responsible for cross-channel projects, for example for broadcasts of major sporting events.

ARD's television and radio programs were and remain a significant cultural and social factor in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. From the 1960s onward, political magazines such as "Panorama," created by NDR based on the BBC model, and WDR's "Monitor," as well as contemporary television dramas by directors such as Egon Monk, Peter Beauvais, Eberhard Fechner, and Heinrich Breloer, the "Stuttgart School" of documentary television, and entertainment programs with Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff and Rudi Carrell, had a national impact. Since public broadcasting had developed into a gathering place for critical intellectuals in many editorial offices in the 1950s, the ARD network was already considered suspect and left-leaning by the Adenauer administration at the time.

At the end of the 1950s, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU) attempted to break the ARD monopoly with the project of "free television," a mixture of state and commercial TV. With the so-called "television ruling," the Federal Constitutional Court halted Adenauer's plans in 1961. From June 1961 to the end of March 1963, a second ARD channel was broadcast daily for approximately 150 minutes, until the Second German Television (ZDF) in Mainz began broadcasting as an additional nationwide broadcaster on April 1, 1963. On September 22, 1964, Bayerischer Rundfunk launched an educational and culturally oriented third television channel. All ARD regional broadcasters gradually followed this model. NDR and Radio Bremen, as well as some SWR and Saarländischer Rundfunk, broadcast a joint third channel. These third channels are now predominantly regional and hardly educationally oriented. Bayerischer Rundfunk launched the educational television channel BR-alpha in January 1998, which was renamed ARD-alpha at the end of June 2014. 

During the 1976 federal election campaign, the CDU/CSU (in conjunction with the "Mainz School" of public opinion pollster Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann) accused ARD television of influencing the elections to the detriment of the CDU/CSU parties. Subsequently, political pressure on ARD steadily increased, clearly evident in its influence on key personnel decisions. Under the aegis of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the then Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Christian Schwarz-Schilling (both CDU), private television and radio broadcasting was permitted in the Federal Republic in 1984. As it turned out, this development had a lasting impact on the self-image of public broadcasting. Despite generous financial resources, ARD management felt inadequately prepared for the new market conditions and threatened politically, economically, and media-culturally. 

In January 1995, the Minister Presidents of Saxony and Bavaria, Kurt Biedenkopf (CDU) and Edmund Stoiber (CSU), proposed in a sensational document the abolition of the First German Television and a reduction of the ARD to larger state broadcasters with only regional television and radio programs, unless the ARD initiated intensive rationalization measures. The ARD complied with the demands. The previously eleven state broadcasters became nine. In 1998, Südwestfunk (SWF) and Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) merged to form Südwestrundfunk (SWR); on May 1, 2003, the merger of Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) and Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) created the new two-state broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). Political attacks on the existence and basic structure of the ARD ceased after that. 

Since public broadcasting began making its offerings increasingly accessible via the Internet in 2006/07, ARD (as well as ZDF) has been the focus of fierce criticism, particularly from publishers who see this as a distortion of competition. They are demanding that the license-funded broadcaster's online activities be clearly limited, as otherwise the private business of publishers would be threatened. As a result, the ARD was required by the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty to undergo so-called three-stage tests. Using these complex procedures, all existing online offerings of the public broadcasters had to be reviewed by the end of August 2010. The ARD was subsequently required to complete around 35 three-stage tests. This was done under the responsibility of the broadcasting councils of the state broadcasting corporations, with the committees awarding a large number of fee-based audits to external experts. With the exception of one procedure at NDR, which was concluded somewhat later, all procedures were concluded by July 2010. One result was that, according to its own statements, ARD had to delete over 100,000 individual documents from the internet; however, in the end, all of ARD's existing online offerings were essentially approved with relatively little problem. While critics described this as a modest result of an almost megalomaniac bureaucratic process, the public broadcaster's telemedia activities have since been on legally secure ground.

In spring 2018, WDR, the largest ARD broadcaster, was hit by "#MeToo" allegations of sexual harassment. WDR Director General Tom Buhrow subsequently appointed Monika Wulf-Mathies, a former EU Commissioner and chairwoman of the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union (ÖTV), as an external auditor. Director General Tom Buhrow subsequently admitted that allegations had been made against around a dozen employees and, as a result, promised to pay even greater attention to a "discrimination-free and respectful working environment" in the future. 

In 2019, a so-called framing paper from the ARD (German Broadcasting Corporation) became public. In the 89-page paper, titled "Framing Manual – Our Joint, Free Broadcasting ARD," linguist Elisabeth Wehling made suggestions, among other things, on how to articulate the advantages of public broadcasting in more convincing and acceptable language—for example, with phrases like "Our Joint, Free Broadcasting ARD." Unsurprisingly, the framing paper sparked a public debate that put the ARD under pressure. The ARD was accused of using the paper to provide employees with instructions on how to manipulate debates about public broadcasting. 

In terms of programming, the broadcaster has recently attracted attention by further increasing the proportion of quiz shows in the early evenings, calculating on higher ratings, broadcasting some of them as multi-hour Saturday evening shows (such as "Wer weiß denn sowas? XXL"), and introducing even more crime formats in the evening schedule, particularly tourist destination crime thrillers on Thursday evenings such as "Der Athen-Krimi," "Der Amsterdam-Krimi," or "Der Barcelona-Krimi." In the premium series sector, which is experiencing a boom – triggered by the US streaming provider Netflix – ARD has so far remained relatively unobtrusive. She was particularly present in this area with the GDR family saga "Weissensee" (four seasons, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018) and the historical hospital series "Charité" (three seasons so far; 2017, 2019, 2021) and with the internationally successful crime series "Babylon Berlin", based on the novels by Volker Kutscher, which was created in cooperation with the pay-TV broadcaster Sky, which received the rights to premiere each season of the series with a lead time of around one year. 

In the documentary/reportage segment, Das Erste now has only one evening with fixed programming after 8:00 p.m.: Monday evenings, with the series "Die Story im Ersten" (10:45 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.) and "Geschichte im Ersten" (History im Ersten) (11:30 p.m. to 12:15 a.m.). 90-minute documentaries have become a rarity on Das Erste. They are now only shown six to eight times a year, on summer evenings when the talk shows are on hiatus, leaving free slots.

From January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021, WDR Director General Tom Buhrow served as Chairman of the ARD. He was succeeded by Patricia Schlesinger, Director General of the RBB, born in 1961. However, on August 5, 2022, after eight months, she resigned due to suspicions of "disloyalty and unfair advantage" and was "removed from her post with immediate effect" on August 15, both from the ARD and RBB chairs. Then, on August 22, she was "dismissed without notice." The allegations involved allegations of nepotism, an "excessive salary increase," "special payments," a luxurious company car with massage seats, a ridiculously expensive renovation of the executive suite, and private invitations billed as expenses. It was the "Schlesinger Affair." Further personnel consequences included the dismissal of Verena Formen-Mohr, head of the directorate, and the resignation of Wolf-Dieter Wolf, chairman of the RBB board of directors who had come under fire. Wolf also resigned as chairman of the supervisory board of the broadcaster's advertising subsidiary RBB Media and resigned from his supervisory board position at Messe Berlin. Wolf and Formen-Mohr were considered close associates of Schlesinger. At ARD, Buhrow subsequently resumed the position of director general, acting on an interim basis. Katrin Vernau succeeded him as interim director at RBB.

Business Insider revealed the next scandal a few days after Schlesinger's dismissal on August 27, 2022. This time, it was about NDR, about "political filters," about a "climate of fear." According to the investigation report, a total of nine NDR editors from the broadcasting center in Kiel had made serious allegations against the station's management. The employees had confidentially contacted the editorial committee. "They tell us that they have the impression there is a filter in the editorial department. Reporting is sometimes prevented and critical information is downplayed. Authors are being removed and contributions are massively altered during the approval process. The atmosphere in the department is poisoned because conflicts have been simmering for so long," the committee summarized.

This was followed by further suspicion of a scandal at NDR. This time, the focus was on NDR Director Sabine Rossbach, head of the regional broadcasting center in Hamburg, for "nepotism" and "favoritism toward relatives," for which no evidence was found. However, after 70 staff interviews and review of files, NDR anti-corruption officers criticized Rossbach's "leadership and communication style." This led to a loss of trust and a lack of transparency. Rossbach left NDR on October 31, 2023.

For the sake of completeness, here's the broadcaster's statement: "The NDR rejects the accusation that there is a 'political filter' at the Schleswig-Holstein State Broadcasting Center. The reporting is unbiased and independent." And: "After numerous personal discussions with employees of the Schleswig-Holstein State Broadcasting Center, those responsible for programming could not detect a 'climate of fear.'"

And then, for example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on August 26, 2022: "MDR Broadcasting Director Ines Hoge-Lorenz resigns." This time, it was a scandal following an older MDR scandal (the "Foht case") that had been uncovered in 2011. Udo Foht was then MDR's head of entertainment, whom the public prosecutor's office accused of "fraud, breach of trust, bribery, and tax evasion in connection with his professional activities." Foht is alleged to have defrauded pop stars of large sums of money. And because she failed to inform MDR that her husband "played a role in the Foht case over ten years ago," State Broadcasting Director Ines Hoge-Lorenz resigned from her position.

The Schlesinger affair also led to a debate about the future (organisation and financing) of public broadcasting in Germany. RBB media expert Jörg Wagner saw it as “the most serious crisis in the public broadcasting“ of the last 30 years. NDR and WDR responded with considerations for improving supervision and further Compliance-Measures. CDU/CSU called for broadcasting reform at the beginning of September 2022.

management

ARD's position holders have almost exclusively reached their positions through internal appointments. The upheaval of the German television market in the 1980s led more to august pronouncements and a wagon-circle mentality than to action-oriented self-reflection. The dismantling of the bloated ARD administrative apparatus was tackled only hesitantly. An awareness of marketing and public relations took hold just as slowly. ARD leadership positions have generally been awarded based on political leanings and internal merit. The first woman to head an artistic directorate was Dagmar Reim (RBB) in 2003, and Monika Piel, the first ever ARD chairwoman, was appointed in 2010. The intertwining of politics and public broadcasting is also regularly discussed when filling artistic directorate positions—especially when Ulrich Wilhelm, a CDU member and Merkel spokesperson, was recruited directly from the federal government's circles in 2010.

The debate about excessive proximity between politics and ARD flared up again with the appointment of Christine Strobl as the new program director. She is also a CDU member, the daughter of Wolfgang Schäuble, and the wife of the Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister. Strobl previously headed the ARD subsidiary Degeto, which she led out of the economic crisis and whose international profile she sharpened thanks to productions like "Babylon Berlin."

Business segments

TV:
For its news coverage, ARD maintains the world's largest network of foreign correspondents (around 90 correspondents in over 30 major cities), who work with the ARD and the ARD channels for their news programs. ARD's leading brands are the news programs "Tagesschau" and "Tagesthemen." Other well-known brands on ARD include the crime series "Tatort," the ARD "Sportschau" with summaries of the Bundesliga soccer matches, and evening series such as "In aller Freundschaft" and "Um Himmels Willen." 

More than any other broadcaster, ARD has attempted to distinguish itself with talk shows in recent years. After initially offering five evening talk shows – which was widely criticized as an oversupply – ARD now only offers three on various weekdays: "Anne Will" on Sundays, "Hart aber fair" with Frank Plasberg on Mondays, and "Maischberger. Die Woche" on Tuesdays.

Third programs:
The third television channels gradually expanded into full-service programs in the 1980s; most are broadcast nationwide via cable and satellite, and now also via the internet. The third channels have almost completely lost their original character as experimental grounds and formal educational institutions. In recent years, they have discovered regional content as their true strength, guaranteeing them excellent ratings. The third channels are also sometimes used as a testing ground for new formats, which, if successful, can be transferred to the first channel.

Special TV engagements:
At the end of November 1993, ARD abandoned its cultural television channel Eins Plus, which it had launched in 1986, and instead acquired a 30 percent stake in 3sat, the international German-language cultural television channel operated jointly by ZDF, ORF (Austria), and SRG (Switzerland). Since 1992, ARD has also held a 25 percent stake in the Strasbourg-based German-French cultural television channel Arte (ZDF also holds 25 percent, Arte France holds 50 percent). In 1997, the two public-service special interest television channels Phoenix and KIKA were launched. Phoenix is a so-called event and documentary channel and is based in Bonn. KIKA is the children's channel based in Erfurt under the auspices of MDR. ARD and ZDF each hold a 50 percent stake in these two channels. There are also two special interest channels: the channels Tagesschau24 and One. 

Radio:
The nine ARD regional broadcasting corporations operate 70 radio stations. 

Internet:
After lengthy negotiations, the state premiers of the German federal states gave the green light in October 2015 for a completely new public online youth program, jointly run by ARD and ZDF. The new program, aimed at 14- to 29-year-olds, launched under the name "Funk" on October 1, 2016. The programs produced for Funk are available on its website (www.funk.net) but are also distributed on popular platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Funk's annual budget of approximately €45 million is financed two-thirds by ARD and one-third by ZDF.

Current developments

Public broadcasting has always been a political bone of contention, especially in politically charged times. At the end of October 2024, details of a reform were announced, which the state premiers had agreed upon after years of discussions. The resolution states that "there is agreement that a fundamental reform of public broadcasting is necessary." The goal is to "make ARD, ZDF, and Deutschlandradio more digital, streamlined, and modern, and to strengthen their acceptance among citizens."

Media companies are to be "more efficiently organized," smaller TV stations are to be eliminated, and ARD's extensive radio offerings are to be reduced from 70 to 53 stations. Cuts are also planned for the special interest channels: two of the current four information channels are to be eliminated, and Arte and 3Sat, as well as ZDF Neo and One, are to cooperate more closely. Spending on sports rights is to be capped. However, the state leaders were unable to agree on an increase in the broadcasting fee. Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria, for example, did not want an increase – saying that reforms must first be implemented. Other states were in favor of an increase in the fee, also with an eye to the long-term effects of reforms and inflation.

Left

< Patricia Schlesinger resigns as ARD chairwoman

< Schlesinger resigns as RBB director general

< Katrin Vernau elected RBB Director General