Funk is a German

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

service, operated by the public broadcasters ARD and

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

. SWR, a regional ARD member, is responsible for the service. Funk describes itself as a "content network". The target group is people between the age of 14 and 29.

History

The director of SWR, , advocated for a public service offer for the target audience in 2011. On 27 November 2012, SWR expressed a wish to merge

EinsPlus EinsPlus was a German free-to-air television channel owned by ARD and operated by SWR. The channel launched on 29 August 1997 under the name ''EinsMuXx'', and was renamed ''EinsPlus'' on 23 April 2005. The channel, along with ZDFkultur was c ...

with

ZDFkultur ZDFkultur (stylized as zdf.kultur) was a German free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receiv ...

. The new station created by this merger would be produced jointly by ARD and ZDF and primarily target a young audience. ZDF expressed caution, pointing out that this would require a decision by politicians. However, ZDF had already made a similar statement in advance and did not rule out, for example, a discontinuation of ZDFkultur in favor of a joint youth channel.

About

Funk is aimed at people between the ages of 14 and 29, who rarely access the

traditional media Old media, or legacy media, are the mass media institutions that dominated prior to the Information Age; particularly print media, film studios, music studios, advertising agencies, radio broadcasting, and television. Old media institutions ar ...

used for

public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

. Two thirds of the project's funding is provided by ARD and one third by ZDF. Funk produces over 70 programs for social media platforms, such as

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Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...

, and the funk.net web app. These are distributed on their own channels or accounts. The programs focus on information and entertainment. In addition, some series are distributed under license, sometimes in their original English versions. Programs are produced by various private production companies, the company's own production companies or by the broadcasters themselves. The funk network is subject to the

Interstate Broadcasting Agreement The ( en, Interstate Broadcasting Agreement), abbreviated as , is the nationwide law for radio station and television licensing in the Federal Republic of Germany. Based on the (sovereignty of the German states in terms of cultural aspects) it ...

. This includes a review of all broadcasts at least every six months.

References

External links

* {{ARD/ZDF 2016 establishments in Germany ARD (broadcaster) Companies based in Mainz German companies established in 2016 German-language television stations Television networks in Germany Internet properties established in 2016 Internet television streaming services Mass media companies established in 2016 Mass media in Mainz Organisations based in Mainz Publicly funded broadcasters Subscription video on demand services Südwestrundfunk Television stations in Germany ZDF