Nepotism, one-sided reporting and a program that ignores the everyday life of many people: The criticism of public service broadcasting in Germany has probably never been greater than today. Nevertheless, ARD and ZDF also have supporters – for example Christian Lindner. The finance minister has now clearly backed the broadcasters. However, the FDP politician sees a need for action when it comes to broadcasting fees and online offers.
In times of record inflation and skyrocketing energy prices, Germans are eagerly looking for any savings potential that is available to them. A possible adjusting screw: the broadcasting fee. Every household has to pay 18.36 euros a month for public service broadcasting. That makes almost 8 billion euros a year, which ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio receive from the citizens. Germany is thus affording the most expensive public service broadcaster in the world. “Does that have to be?” That’s why many Germans ask themselves. For Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the answer is clear.
Christian Lindner defends broadcast contribution
At the congress of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) Lindner clearly positioned himself behind ARD and ZDF (Source: digital television). There is one in Germany Need for public service broadcasting, said the 43-year-old. That comes as a surprise, after all, the FDP leader has not been noticed as a particularly big defender of the ÖRR in the past.
The much criticized one Lindner also defended the broadcast contribution and rejected alternatives such as financing from taxpayers’ money. This would lead to an indirect influence of the Budget Committee on broadcasting. France has recently abolished the license fee and introduced tax financing for public service broadcasting. But that cannot be transferred to Germany, says Lindner.
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Finance Minister criticizes too many specialty channels and online offers
Despite his support for ARD and ZDF, Lindner sees it Need for reform at the broadcasting stations. This includes, for example, not always creating new special interest channels and online offers that then compete with commercial offers. According to the Minister of Finance, this is not part of the basic service mandate. In addition, Lindner spoke out in favor of freezing the license fee for the next few years. There was already a similar proposal from the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU boss Markus Söder.