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Publicly funded radio and TV in Germany was a mishmash of entertainment, education, news reporting but also music production. Entire symphony orchestras and Jaz
by zwieback 3y ago
Publicly funded radio and TV in Germany was a mishmash of entertainment, education, news reporting but also music production. Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part of the state-run stations. Private broadcasting didn't exist, maybe wasn't allowed then.
Not surprised to hear about electronic music being funded as well, the public networks had a reputation of being somewhat elitist and high brow.
- nwellnhof 3y ago> Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part of the state-run stations. They still are: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkorchester https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkorchester
- a2800276 3y agoJust a small correction. They are not state-run but run by a sort of public trust. There are meticulous mechanisms that are intended to keep the public broadcasting system independent of government influence. These work to some degree, and are just ridiculous boongoggles in other cases. E.g. to be independent, they are not funded by taxes, but have their own non-government agency (GEZ) that collects broadcast fees. Nowadays every household has to pay, but even a couple of years ago you could opt out if you didn't have a TV or radio. The GEZ had a special squad of investigators to check if you owned a TV or radio. All in all it works fairly well, but it is somewhat elitist and panders to a strange bouquet of special interests that strangely mirror the composition of its "neutral" governing body. All in all though, German radio is pretty good and public television isn't dominated by ads and has high quality content, especially if you are into more high-brow cultural productions. And the news are excellent.