The initial situation was described by director Dr. Katja Wildermuth in her report to the Broadcasting Council as a balancing act: On the one hand, the BR has been determined by austerity targets for years – despite rising inflation and industry-specific price increases. On the other hand, new tasks for the house and new platforms for the program are added every year. Politicians and society also rightly had high expectations of public broadcasters, especially with regard to their role in combating fake news and securing democratic discourse – while at the same time the number of staff and resources was decreasing.
The contribution adjustment currently recommended by the KEF corresponds to just 0.8 percent increase per year after reducing the originally announced financial requirement to around a third. Wildermuth emphasized that the BR had planned the 58 cent increase in the contribution period from 2025 to 2028 and expected that the constitutional procedure would be adhered to by the states. With an annual BR budget of around EUR 1 billion, plans for 2025 assume a financing gap of around EUR 70 million. In order to close this, all material cost budgets would continue to be frozen, and each directorate would also have to save three percent of its budget – “but not according to the lawnmower principle, but based on cleverly prepared, strategic criteria,” said Wildermuth. She named a bundle of reduction measures, for example in the areas of real estate, costume inventory, workshops, vehicle fleet, archives, library, transmitter locations as well as a promotion of smart forms of production and technical standardization. The motto still applies: “Program before concrete”. The necessary savings in the program were based on the BR program strategy: more unique things, more background and analyzes as well as more generation-appropriate offers.
The BR program directors for culture and information, Björn Wilhelm and Thomas Hinrichs, announced that they would proceed as carefully as possible to the program and, above all, keep an eye on the shift to digital. As concrete measures, they mentioned that the TV formats “Euroblick” and “Alpen-Donau-Adria” would be discontinued and that there would no longer be a new production of “Komödienstadel”. In return, the BR had recently strengthened its commitment to ARD Weltspiegel, among other things. The Bayern text is replaced by the ARD text. BR24 TV at 4 p.m. becomes a digital format on BR24 live, which is also broadcast on linear TV. For the fall, BR24 is clearly focusing on video content with the new format “BR24 on site”. This means that text offers from the region will be consistently reduced. In addition, holiday breaks for individual programs are to be extended. In addition, the BR is using the dividends from the increased cooperation between the ARD via competence centers and pool solutions in radio, for example through joint evening programs on the info radios as well as through takeovers and collaborations in the areas of health, nature films and cooking.
With regard to staff, the BR management made it clear that there would be no general job or replacement freeze as in other ARD broadcasters. Target images are currently being created for the individual departments and their future personnel needs. In addition, natural fluctuation offers opportunities for change and generational transition.
Future budget with transformation budget
According to the director, transformation does not come for free: digitalization, AI, more young journalists as well as new formats and workflows would initially require additional funding. Therefore, a transformation budget of EUR 5 million per year is planned for the BR in the coming contribution period. It is available to all directorates.
“With the BRKompass2035, we gave ourselves a groundbreaking corporate strategy last year to ensure our future viability. In this sense, the 2025 economic plan is also a budget for the future, because saving alone is not a strategy.” Katja Wildermuth, BR director
