Co-operation partners

Co-operation partners

Association of Public Broadcasting Corporations in the Federal Republic of Germany (ARD)

The ARD, founded in 1950, is an alliance consisting, in the meantime, of nine independent, regional broadcasting corporations (on 1st May 2003, SFB and ORF merged to form RBB). Their joint task is the production and transmission of radio and television programmes for the general public. According to their official mandate, with their programmes they should serve to information, education and entertainment for all citizens. The tenth member of the ARD is the international broadcasting corporation Deutsche Welle (DW). In accordance with their mandate, the members of the ARD provide the whole of Germany with radio and television programmes - on a regional, state and national level. Mainly programme-related Internet portals and own videotext services supplement the range. The ARD transmits over 1,500 hours of radio and around 260 hours of TV programmes daily. As a result, it registers an average market share of more than 55 percent on radio and more than 28 percent on television. That makes the ARD number 1 in Germany. And worldwide with this output, a budget of 6.1 bill. Euro and around 23,800 permanent staff, it is the largest non-commercial programme provider.

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