ARD
The ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the association of all public broadcasters in Germany and Deutsche Welle. It does not serve as a superordinate association, but exists in parallel to the autonomous broadcasting organisations. ARD produces so-called joint programmes such as the television channel Das Erste or the website tagesschau.de. These offerings are financed by all members; for Das Erste, each broadcaster provides a programme share according to its economic size. The ARD-aktuell editorial team, which is responsible for the news content, is based at Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg, while the programme editorial team, which plans the programme for Das Erste, is based in Munich at Bayerischer Rundfunk. As ARD is a consortium, there are a number of mechanisms in place to guarantee the autonomy of the member broadcasters in the federal broadcasting system. For example, no broadcasting organisation may be obliged to contribute financially against its will, and decisions are always taken unanimously.
As a working group, ARD is not a legal entity in its own right. Responsibility for its content always lies with a lead broadcaster or the chairman. Every two years, a different broadcaster takes over the ARD chairmanship, which currently falls to SWR. The ARD managing director during this time is SWR director general Kai Gniffke.
ARD's services include the nationwide television channel Das Erste, its own children's channel (KiKa), the ARD media centre (video-on-demand) and other websites such as tagesschau.de.
Business Form
public
Legal Form
ARD is organised by the state broadcasting corporations and does not itself have legal capacity. It therefore does not have its own legal form.
Individual Owner
Other TV Outlets
One (1.1%);
Phoenix (0.8%) (together with ZDF);
KiKa (0.6%) (together with ZDF);
Tagesschau24 (0.4%);
ARD-alpha (0.2%)
Other Radio Outlets
Deutschlandfunk (3%) (together with ZDF);
Deutschlandfunk Kultur (0.8%) (together with ZDF);
Deutschlandfunk Nova (0.2%) (together with ZDF);
ARD-Hitnacht (MD);
ARD-Nachtkonzert (MD);
ARD-Popnacht (MD);
ARD-Infonacht (MD);
Die junge Nacht der ARD (MD)
Other Online Outlets
www.phoenix.de (0.03%);
www.sportschau.de (0.5%);
www.ard.de (0.27%);
www.ardaudiothek.de (MD);
www.ardmediathek.de (1.15%);
www.daserste.de (0.39%);
www.deutschlandfunk.de (0.21%);
www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de (MD);
www.deutschlandfunknova.de (MD);
www.deutschlandradio.de (MD);
www.dlf-podcastfinder.de (MD);
FUNK (Content-Netzwerk, gemeinsam mit dem ZDF);
www.funk.net (MD)
Media Business
As ARD does not have legal capacity, it does not itself have any shareholdings. However, the participating broadcasters operate jointly in some companies under the ARD brand; the shareholdings result from the added shares of the nine state broadcasters:
Market research
AGF Videoforschung GmbH (17.64% via members, direct and indirect participation)
Advertising
ARD Media GmbH (100% via members)
Seminars and training
ARD.ZDF medienakademie gGmbH (79.85% via members)
TV channels
ARTE Deutschland GmbH (50% via members)
Film rights and marketing
Degeto GmbH (100% via members)
Archive work
Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (78.54% via members)
Sports broadcasting rights
SportA GmbH (50% via members)
Business
Television channel
ARTE (Franco-German co-operation, via ARTE Deutschland GmbH) (50%)
3Sat (32.5%) (co-operation with ARD, ORF and SRG SSR)
General Information
Founding Year
1950
Affiliated Interests Founder
On 9 June 1950, the then state broadcasters of the Federal Republic of Germany adopted the ‘Agreement on the Establishment of a Consortium’. The resolution was based on an earlier draft by Hugh Carleton Greene, which was not pursued and revised. ARD has borne its current name since 1954.
Hans Bredow is considered the founder of broadcasting in Germany. From 1926 to 1933, he was Reich Broadcasting Commissioner in the Reich Broadcasting Corporation. After the National Socialists came to power, he resigned and only returned to work in 1949 when he was elected Chairman of the Administrative Board of Hessischer Rundfunk. As early as 1947, Bredow proposed a ‘German Broadcasting Consortium’, but this was rejected by the directors general of the other broadcasting companies, who feared that the broadcasting system would become too centralised. As a counter-proposal, the director general of NWDR, Adolf Grimme, and the director general of SWF, Friedrich Bischoff, put forward an earlier proposal by Hugh Greene, which ultimately found a majority among the directors general.
Employees
22,111 (total number of participating broadcasters and ARD joint organisations)
Contact
ARD-Programmdirektion
ARD-Zuschauerredaktion
Postfach 200665
80006 München
Tel. (089) 55 89 440
Vertretungsberechtigter und Gesamtverantwortlicher:
Intendant Prof. Dr. Kai Gniffke (aktueller ARD-Vorsitzender)
Südwestrundfunk
Neckarstraße 230
70190 Stuttgart
Telefon: 0711 929-0
E-Mail: info@swr.de
Tax/ ID Number
As a working group, the ARD is not a legal entity and therefore does not have a tax number(s).
Financial Information
Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Management
Executive Board
As ARD is a consortium that has to take into account the federal structure of the broadcasting sector, there is a strong interdependence between its committees.
ARD makes central decisions through its General Assembly, which consists of the directors general of the participating broadcasters. Decisions that involve financial burdens for the members can also be subject to a committee reservation. This means that the relevant committees within the individual broadcasting organisations must also give their approval. According to the ARD statutes, the voting shares of the broadcasting organisations differ depending on their economic strength. However, this rule is not applied de facto, meaning that each broadcasting organisation receives one vote in voting.
The Programme Directorate is responsible for the content of ARD's joint programmes. It develops the programme strategy, plans and coordinates the linear and non-linear offerings, such as the Das Erste programme. As the Programme Directorate is based in Munich, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (Bayerischer Rundfunk) is in charge, while the Bavarian Broadcasting Council is responsible for programme control.
ARD also has various committees whose purpose is not to make decisions, but to coordinate and exchange information between the respective committees of the members:
The Video Programme Conference (VPK) consists of the programme directors of the individual state broadcasters. In cooperation with the ARD Programme Directorate, it advises and decides on the programming of the ARD joint facilities such as the ARD media library and the television programme Das Erste. It is chaired by ARD Programme Director Christiane Strobl. The Video Programme Conference is advised by a Programme Advisory Board, to which the state broadcasters each delegate one member.
Analogue committees exist in the areas of radio (Audio Programme Conference), technology (Production and Technology Commission) and law (Legal Commission).
Supervisory Board
The ARD Conference of Committee Chairs (GVK) consists of the chairmen of the broadcasting and administrative boards of the nine regional broadcasting corporations and Deutsche Welle. Its primary purpose is to ensure exchange and coordination between the members' committees.
The GVK advises the directors on fundamental questions of program design, organization and media policy. The current chairman of the GVK is Dr. Engelbert Günster, the chairman of the SWR Broadcasting Council.
Other Influential People
Programme Director of ARD. Strobl has been Managing Director of Degeto Film GmbH since 2012 and took over the post of ARD Programme Director in 2021. In this role, she is also the Chair of the ARD Permanent Video Programme Conference. Strobl is the daughter of the late CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble (1942-2023). She is a member of the CDU herself and is married to the Baden-Württemberg Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Thomas Strobl (also CDU).
has been the Secretary General of ARD since 2015. In this role, she supports the changing ARD chairmen and represents ARD in legislative processes with the federal government, for example. From 2006 to 2014, she held the position of managing director of the ARD Conference of Chairpersons.
Further Information
Meta Data
The audience share in the online sector refers to the share of unique users, was collected by Nielsen and accessed via KEK. The date of the survey is unknown.
The audience share in per cent for the TV stations comes from AGF Videoforschung in cooperation with GfK 2023, accessed via Meedia.de and means the average annual share of the total audience.
The audience share in per cent comes from the agma-Ergebung I/2024 and means the nationwide daily reach in the population aged 14 and over.
Note on the level of transparency:
Since it is not possible to classify the level of transparency of public media with regard to ownership structures, the evaluation included the availability of information on the supervisory and control bodies as well as information on their members and the transparency with regard to corporate investments.
Advertising revenues and revenues for ARD joint facilities can be viewed in the KEF report, but they are grouped together there, so that it is not possible to identify them for individual outlets.
The committee structure of ARD is only incompletely listed on the website
