Deutsche Welle taglia di 4/5 le onde corte

Anche la Germania taglia sulla radiofonia in onde corte: dal primo luglio blocco delle trasmissioni in diverse lingue est-europee ripetute in FM, mentre dal primo di novembre ci sarà una drastica riduzione delle trasmissioni in onde corte. L'ultimo bilancio approvato da Deutsche Welle, emittente internazionale di stato tedesca, porta a una notevole diminuzione dell'output via radio, sia in onde corte - passerà dalle attuali 260 ore a 55 con la chiusura dei ripetitori di Sri Lanka e Sines in Portogallo - sia in modulazione di frequenza, con la cessazione delle partnership locali fuori da Africa e Asia. Resterà in esercizio la stazione relay del Rwanda, anche perché Deutsche Welle si focalizza sull'Asia e sull'Africa (ma cessa di trasmettere in tedesco e in molte altre lingue). La rifocalizzazione comporta un aumento delle attività multimediali.

Deutsche Welle Scales Down Radio Broadcasts

Increased focus on television, online and mobile services

Reduction of shortwave broadcasts

Starting July 1, 2011, Deutsche Welle (DW) will be making major changes in how and when its radio programming is broadcast in Asia and Europe, as well as German radio programming as a whole.

The measures will ensure the further development of Germany’s international broadcaster to a truly multimedia organization. As stipulated in the organization’s strategic plan for 2010-2013, DW will focus on modern modules that can be integrated into partner’s FM line-ups as well as being offered as stand-alone, on-demand services for the Internet and mobile devices. DW will thereby increase the cooperation with its partners throughout the world. With the exception of Africa and parts of Asia, linear shortwave broadcasts will be discontinued due to limited usage. The resources that have been saved will be reinvested in projects for the future – especially in the development of television services with regional languages and content, as well as an increase in online and mobile services.

DW will aim to use its available resources to offer two TV channels per region. This will give viewers the opportunity to choose between a channel with predominantly German programming and a channel with a focus on one of the regional languages – English, Spanish or Arabic.

In the future, DW will work with partner stations in Central and Southeast Europe to broadcast regional TV magazines and produce online services – each in the regional language. Starting July 1, 2011, the FM services for Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Macedonian and Romanian will be reduced and eventually discontinued. The frequencies that were purchased or rented in Sofia, Bucharest, Pristina and Tirana will be returned, as well as the corresponding licenses. The FM broadcasts for Albanian, Bosnian and Serbian will be reduced. In the future, these services will focus on selected partnerships with local FM stations. A service in Romani will be maintained for the time being. For Ukraine, DW is currently examining whether or not an agreement can be made with a partner to broadcast a reduced amount of FM radio programming that has been tailored to fit their needs. Radio programming for Hindi will be discontinued on July 1.

Reduction of shortwave

On November 1, 2011, DW will be discontinuing the shortwave broadcast for German, Russian, Farsi and Indonesian. For English, the shortwave broadcast will be limited to Africa. The broadcasting times for Chinese programming will be reduced from 120 minutes to 60 minutes. For these languages, DW will also be increasing the online and mobile services as well as video-on-demand and audio-on-demand. The portfolio will also include audio productions for rebroadcast by partners (when applicable).

Starting in November, DW will only be broadcasting radio programming via shortwave in the following languages: Amharic, Chinese, Dari, English and French for Africa, Hausa, Kiswahili, Pashtu, Portuguese for Africa and Urdu.

Closing of relay stations

The shortwave program currently broadcasts 260 hours daily with DW’s own or rented relay stations – with the new focus on Africa and regions in Asia that will be reduced to just 55 at the beginning of the winter season. Only the relay station in Kigali (Rwanda) will be needed for shortwave broadcasts in Africa. The stations in Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) und Sines (Portugal) can no longer be used to capacity. The financial operation is no longer possible and the relay stations will stop being used on November 1, 2011 and closed at the next possible point in time.

With the reduction of rental prices and the closing of the two relay stations, DW will be able to save resources that can be reinvested in the further development of its services.

Development of FM broadcasts with partners

DW will continue to expand its network of FM partners in Africa. The radio production for Hausa, Kiswahili, French and Portuguese for Africa will be optimized for FM broadcasts step by step. DW will also produce a regional radio magazine daily in English, to be rebroadcast by partners in Africa.

Audio content in Arabic will be created for the Middle East and North Africa and distributed online, via mobile or rebroadcast by partners.

DW will focus on FM partnerships for Bengali, Urdu, Dari/Pashtu und Indonesian for South Asia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A decision will be made about the future of these partnerships in accordance with the budget situation and following the evaluation results.

Strategic plan for 2010 to 2013

The German Bundestag approved DW’s strategic plan in April 2011 with an overwhelming majority. The core of the plan is the multimedia orientation of the broadcaster, the focus on major tasks and target regions with regards to the budgetary issues. The new strategic direction ensures that DW is prepared for the changing conditions of international media markets:

Services for certain languages and regions will be reinforced to secure DW’s competitive position in the future.

The focus for the coming years will be on Sub-Sahara Africa, the Middle East, Iran and North Africa, South Asia and Afghanistan, Russia and Latin America. Due to the limited budget, the development of services will only be possible when activities are reduced somewhere else. In the area of television, DW will work more closely together with the German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and develop regionalized TV programming with selected partners. For many areas around the world, it will be necessary to further development online and mobile services in order to reach DW’s target audience better: Individuals who are interested in diverse perspectives and use a large amount and variety of media resources. That especially includes opinion leaders and future opinion leaders as well as people who lobby for democracy, freedom and progress in authoritarian countries and thereby strengthen the civil society.

DW, onde corte troppo "lineari": vanno chiuse

“Die lineare Radioausstrahlung über Kurzwelle wird - mit Ausnahme Afrikas - beendet.” Ovvero, la diffusione lineare in onde corte cesserà, ad eccezione dei programmi rivolti all'Africa. La Deutsche Welle, prestigiosa emittente internazionale tedesca si appresta all'ennesima ristrutturazione dopo che le risorse fiananziarie sono state ulteriormente limate. Le onde corte resteranno solo per gli ascoltatori in Africa, intere aree, dai Balcani all'Indonesia, non riceveranno più segnali. L'emittente si rifocalizzerà su Internet e produrrà meno programmi, moltiplicando piuttosto le opportunità di ascolto non lineare attraverso i podcast. Ecco un articolo di Meedia.de

DW STEHT VOR STELLENKÜRZUNGEN UND RADIKALEM UMBAU

Strukturreform: Die “Neue Deutsche Welle”

Die Deutsche Welle will sich runderneuern. Und damit einmal mehr gegen den zu geringen Sendertat ankämpfen. Das Programm soll schlanker, die Strukturen straffer und Kosten eingespart werden. Die bisherige Trennung von Fernsehen, Hörfunk und Internet will man schrittweise aufgeben und sich auf digitale Verbreitungswege konzentrieren. Von den Sparmaßnahmen sind vor allem das Rumpfprogramm und die Mitarbeiter in Osteuropa betroffen. Doch bis die Reformen greifen, können noch Jahre vergehen.

Seit Jahren klagt die Deutsche Welle über zu geringe finanzielle Mittel. Jetzt soll das Rumpfprogramm radikal zusammengekürzt werden. Auf eine Stunde pro Tag, die ständig wiederholt werden soll. Bisher waren es zwei Stunden. Wird das Programm tatsächlich verschlankt, dürfte sich das auch auf den Mitarbeiterstamm auswirken. Denn auch dort soll es zu Einschränkungen kommen. Vorrangig bei den ausländischen Redaktionen: So stehe vor allem die osteuropäische Dependance im Fokus der Sparmaßnahmen. Auf dem Balkan, in Indien und Indonesien soll die Deutsche Welle künftig gar nicht mehr zu empfangen sein.

Mehr Podcasts, weniger Programm

Damit nicht genug. Auch die Verbreitungswege sollen optimiert werden. Die Süddeutsche Zeitung zitiert Punkt 12 des 'Eckpunktepapiers', das Intendant Erik Bettermann Anfang November mit seinen Direktoren verabschiedet hat. Darin heißt es: “Die lineare Radioausstrahlung über Kurzwelle wird - mit Ausnahme Afrikas - beendet.” Künftig will man sich verstärkt auf das Satellitenprogramm und Podcasts konzentrieren.

Anders als die Öffentlich-Rechtlichen finanziert sich die Deutsche Welle aus Steuergeldern. Der Senderetat lag bisher bei rund 270 Millionen Euro. Doch schon seit Ende der Neunziger leidet der Sender unter finanziellen und personellen Kürzungen. Von 1999 bis 2004 wurde der damalige Haushalt um rund 75 Millionen Euro zurückgefahren. 1998 beendete sie ihr Angebot auf dänisch, norwegisch, niederländisch, italienisch und sanskrit. Ende 1999 folgten japanisch, slowakisch, slowenisch, spanisch, tschechisch und ungarisch. 2005 wurde der Senderetat dann nochmals erhöht.

Doch das Geld scheint nicht auszureichen. “Wir haben trotz der Rationalisierungsmaßnahmen der vergangenen Jahre nicht das Geld, das wir brauchen”, erklärt DW-Sprecher Johannes Hoffmann im Interview mit der Süddeutschen. Allerdings könne es noch zwei bis drei Jahre dauern, bis die Reformen auch umgesetzt werden. Vorher müssen allerdings erst einmal die Regierung und der Bundestag Stellung nehmen. Und das kann dauern.