Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television, ZDF) was founded in 1961 through a legal agreement of all the Länder. The corporation is based in Mainz.
ZDF cooperates closely with ARD, running jointly a number of channels such as ARTE (in cooperation with France), 3Sat (in cooperation with Austria and Switzerland), Kika and Phoenix.
Media assets
Television: ZDF
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent Public (IP)
Ownership and governance
The television council is the highest governing body at ZDF. Its members work on a voluntary basis to represent the interests of the general public at the broadcaster. Hence it also plays a role of an independent assessment and oversight body. Its members are sent to the council by different social groups. The council meets in public, all its meeting discussions being published online.
Besides its public advocate role, the council also approves the budget adopted by the ZDF board of directors and the station’s annual financial statements.
Since 2016, the ZDF television council has consisted of 60 members appointed according to the ZDF State Treaty to ensure diversity, an appointment formula that prevents political control. The director of ZDF is elected by the television council for a period of five years.The board of directors is the next highest authority at ZDF, with 12 members, whose tasks are mostly administrative, related to the day-to-day running of the ZDF. A major task of this board is to monitor the station’s spending. Eight members of the board of directors are elected by the television council and four are appointed by the federal states.
Source of funding and budget
ZDF is funded in the same way as ARD: most of its budget is accounted for by revenues from the public license fee. ZDF receives some €5 a month from the total €18.36 paid by each German household to finance the public media.In 2020, ZDF had a total budget of €2.2bn, according to data from the company. The revenue from license fees accounted for more than 85% of that. In 2021, ZDF’s budget increased to €2.39bn, nearly 85% of that being generated through the public license fee.
Editorial independence
Like in the case of the ARD, there are no rules imposed by the German Lander governments or by the Federal Government that encroach upon the editorial independence of ZDF. As in the ARD case, ZDF has a solid reputation as a journalism powerhouse, financially stable and independent, and fully accountable to the public.
In Germany, the freedom of the press is guaranteed in the country’s Basic Law. However, there is no domestic statute that specifically guarantees the editorial independence of ZDF.
Yet, as editorial independence is of major importance for the station, Germans thought that the best guarantees for editorial freedom can be offered through funding and governance (a financial model based on fees paid by the public and a governing body as diverse as possible to prevent government’s interference).
The television council, which also has a major decision role in matters of strategy and management appointment, also plays a role of an advocate for viewers. They can contact the council directly with program complaints. Such a structure ensures that viewers are represented at the highest level at ZDF.
September 2023