TS News - Arte Labelled "Waste Of Money"

• From: martyn@twics.com (Martyn Williams)
• Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 12:22:38 +0900
• From owner-ts-news@tele-satellit.com Tue Oct 15 23: 28:46 1996

TELE-satellit News, 16 October 1996

Arte Labelled "Waste Of Money"
  MUNICH, Germany, 96/10/15 (TS/SatND) -- Two of Europe's highest profile
public television channels are under attack - by a German public television
executive. Hening Röhl, TV programming director of one of Germany's regional
public broadcasters, today claimed that Franco-German art channel Arte was
just "a waste of money."

  He said the 0.2 percent market share in Germany proved the service wasn't
worth the money it cost. In Germany the channel is available via satellite
and cable which results in lower viewing figures than France where it is
also available via a terrestrial network inherited from La Cinquieme.

  German public broadcasters pay DM210 million per year, 50 percent of the
channel's expenditure, from their viewers' license fees. Many of them can't
receive it, though, as they don't receive cable or satellite television.

  Arte was "l'Art pour l'Art," said Röhl who also attacked 3sat, a TV
channel set up by public broadcasters from Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland. 3sat carries programming from the major national public TV
networks in each of those countries. Even public TV channels had to attract
viewers, he said. "If they don't, there's something wrong."

(c)TELE-satellit 1996. All rights reserved.

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