Köln (Cologne) can be considered the most important media cluster in Germany. Interconnections between IT software and services, telecommunications, and media are built on the foundation of qualified labor, presence of leading companies, and a favorable growth climate in this region of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Fueled by increasing demand and financed by mandatory fees from German television viewers (as well as advertising revenues), the German public television system began to emerge after WWII. In 1954, regional stations came together to form ARD, a supra-regional cooperation where programming could be shared and coordinated. Nine years later, after criticism that ARD was too fragmented and not all that government-friendly to the policies coming from Bonn, ZDF ("Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen") was broadcast to provide a conservative counterpart to the liberal ARD. Private television station like RTL and SAT-1 emerged in the 1980's. Along with the rapid increase in TV stations came debate and legislation about how much advertising is allowed per hour, mandatory TV fees, and private vs. public television. Needless to say, the combination of public (well-financed with fees) TV and private (advertising revenue-based) TV in Germany is not without its issues.
At the city hall in Köln, we discussed this and other topics that the city and region was facing. Köln's strategy for the future of its media-dominance is based on retaining quality talent from its University and other places of higher learning, tap into the potentials arising from its diverse population (up to 30% of people living in Köln are foreign), provide fast-track communication with current and potential investors, and continue creating a favorable regulatory and infrastructure climte for businesses.
The crest of Köln: this emblem of the city hangs in the city hall building. If you look closely, you'll see three crowns over 11 tear drops. The three crowns represent the 3 Magi (Three Kings) whose remains are resting in the Cathedral. "The eleven tears are a reminder of Cologne's patron, Saint Ursula, a Britannic princess, and her legendary 11,000 virgin companions who were supposedly martyred by Attila the Hun at Cologne for their Christian faith in 383. The entourage of Ursula and the number of victims was significantly smaller; according to one source, the original legend referred to only eleven companions and the number was later inflated by relic traders"(Wikipedia).
Surveying a model of Köln: here city officials showed us of new and upcoming development projects for the city.
Arrival at RTL Television GmbH, located a bit away from the city center at Aachenerstrasse.
Approaching the RTL compound: here we entered the RTL building and were ushered to a room where we spent an hour speaking with Peter Kloeppel, one of Germany's most famous journalists and chief editor of RTL Television. 2009 is RTL's 25th anniversary year and he gave a fantastic presentation about his station's market share dominance, genre and content management, production cycle of shows, RTL's multimedia platforms, and quality of news. RTL has a 32.9% market share and caters to a considerably younger audience than the public stations.
Scott and I in the studio: following the presentation, we took a walking tour of the studios. Here we are sitting at a studio desk in front of a green screen. Cool!
Learning the ins and outs of the studio: here a broadcast worker is showing us how a studio works. The desk seemed a little shabby and cluttered to me. Apparently, as we were told, with the emergence of High Definition TV, studios need to be updated and cleaned up because all little imperfections will be visible to viewers!
Funny guy: the studio worker showing us around was mixing in english to his tour and making us laugh. He is holding a green-colored tie to show us what would happen if a reporter wears green: the green would show the background and it would appear that the reporter has a hole in him/her!
A real teleprompter: the speed at which the text flows can be adjusted by the reader with a foot pedal hidden under the desk.
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