tagesschau.de survives on E16m without adverts

The online edition of the Germany public-owned television, tagesschau.de, depends annually on about 16 million Euro subvention generated from the nation’s radio and television tax fund.

Editorial Manager at tagesschau.de online, Mr. Jorg Sadrozinski, disclosed this to newsmen from 11 countries on tour to the station, under the InWent’s Capacity Building Development for media, the International Institute for Journalism (IIJ), who were in Hamburg at the weekend.

He said the total sum is part of the E17 monthly tax paid by users of radio and television in the country.

This, he explained, was the reason behind non-advertisement in the media especially the online edition.

“We’re financed by licensing fees of about E17 monthly paid by the citizens of Germany,” he said.

Mr. Sadrozinski also noted that this amount collected by the revenue authorities and remitted to the organization is enough for the annual sustenance of the media outfit.

The medium which has bureaus at various parts of the world including Africa, he said, offers its services free.

Emphasizing that his office deployed a content management system that enables it to offer Short Messaging Service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) based Value Added Service (VAS) to the citizens.

In offering this VAS, he said, tagesschua.de is partnering with Vodafone and e-plus among other telecom operators in the country to ensure the popularity of the services continue to grow.

He later showed the visitors round the premises of the organisation’s newsroom and how they source and provide editorial contents mostly for those who wish to subscribe specifically for particular interest.