Reuters reports that Germany’s public broadcasters will significantly reduce the programming they put online. This move is a response to attacks from commercial channels and newspapers that the online offerings represent unfair competition.
Markus Schachter, director of public broadcaster ZDF, said the channel will reduce its online offerings by 70 percent and cut the length of time that catch-up programming is available for streaming. Reports on the official websites of ZDF and sister channel ARD will now be taken down after one week, and reports on sporting events, such as Germany’s Bundesliga soccer games, will be pulled after only one day online. Schachter also said ZDF would focus more on posting video to its site and greatly reduce its text-only offerings.
The German newspaper industry has been complaining for some time that ARD and ZDF’s free websites unfairly compete with the online versions of their publications.