Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England
by realityking on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @07:10AM
(#25832660)
> The ZDF, if memory serves well, is allowed to be more of a government policy outlet than the ARD and the third programms.
This was the original intent: Adenauer wanted a federal public broadcaster to compete with ARD which he considered too critical of his government. The constitutional court shut that down as only the states have the right to set up public broadcasters with domestic transmissions (Deutsche Welle is focused externally). Today ZDF and ARD have the same legal framework, they are just organized differently.
Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England
by bnlpxg on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @06:38AM
(#25832445)
The arguments you make are orthogonal to the discussion whether TV fees should be protection money or based on actual TV ownership.
The latter has been the status quo in Germany for the better part of time since WW2, and arguably people were less radicalized on both sides of the political spectrum than now.
It is when institutions get overtly greedy that people start to complain.
Broadcasting, as opposed to the 100% Nazi party controll of media before, was thus setup to be independetly funded and run. The ZDF, if memory serves well, is allowed to be more of a government policy outlet than the ARD and the third programms. The goal is to prevent media to become government controlled, with the added benefit of being independent from add revenue. And that principal is still pretty solid.