ARD and ZDF cooperate on TV ad sales
The German public television networks ARD and ZDF will collaborate on the sale of advertising time in the future. A joint subsidiary will be responsible for selling TV commercials. Resistance from politicians is expected.
The German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF will cooperate in the sale of advertising time in future. The Federal Cartel Office has confirmed the notification of the sales cooperation. According to a report in the online magazine Horizont.net, a joint subsidiary will be responsible for the sale of TV commercials. However, the offer, pricing, scheduling and research are to remain independent.ARD and ZDF "do not wish to comment" on the plans, as the report continues. The cooperation is welcome among buyers, but more than just advantages in administration and sales processing were expected, according to Christof Baron, COO of the Frankfurt media agency Mindshare. However, he sees things differently for the license fee payer: "From an economic point of view, the marketing of ARD and ZDF under one roof is the best thing that can happen to the license fee payer".
The proposed cooperation is unlikely to go down well with the private competition and resistance is also to be expected at a political level: only last week, the SPD's media commission renewed its call for the gradual abolition of advertising and sponsorship on ARD and ZDF. Cooperation between the two broadcasters already existed last summer with a joint image advertisement (see:
).
