It’s a Franco-German success story: on May 30, the cultural channel Arte will be 30 years old. So time to take a closer look.
Millions of people regularly watch Arte. But how well do you know your station? A few facts about the 30th birthday on May 30th:
1. Arte is the only major television broadcaster in Germany whose web address ends with «.tv». In the early days of the Internet, this domain only stood for the tiny Pacific state of Tuvalu. Together with a Canadian entrepreneur, Tuvalu gave its suffix to many world TV stations, including Arte. The island state financed hospitals, schools and the admission fee for the UN from the income.
2. The viewing habits of Arte fans in Germany and France are not always the same. Program director Emelie de Jong told the German Press Agency: “Geopolitics is generally of interest to all TV viewers in both countries. But if you show a series about the Algerian war, then of course more French people will tune in to the program than Germans.” She added: «We also find that the Germans are more interested in Eastern Europe – for example in the field of music – than the French. So you can see again and again that there are indeed topics that an audience in a country is more concerned with.” Deputy program director Sylvie Stephan said: “Germans and French also eat dinner at different times. Prime time in Germany starts at 8:15 p.m., while in France it doesn’t start until around 8:55 p.m.»
3. Only a few months ago, Arte called German youth protection activists into action. What happened? A zombie film had accidentally been broadcast uncensored, thereby violating German law. George A. Romero’s 1985 horror film “Zombie 2 – The Final Chapter” was about man-eating undead in Florida. When the faux pas became known days later, the film was immediately removed from the media library. Art apologized.
4. Monsieur le Président reigns at Arte in Strasbourg. The post will be occupied alternately by Germany and France. Bruno Patino currently holds the post. The German Peter Weber is Vice-President. At the top of German public broadcasters are usually directors.
5. Arte is becoming more and more multilingual. The broadcaster now offers content in six languages in a variety of ways. In addition to the main languages French and German, there are subtitles in English, Italian, Polish and Spanish. More than half of all programs are now accessible worldwide. Deputy program director Stephan said: “Our offer Arte in six languages reaches 70 percent of Europeans in their mother tongue. We want to continue to increase this share.” One is in constructive talks, for example with broadcasters in Northern and Eastern Europe, such as Lithuanian television.
6. Arte is a big player on the World Wide Web. The digital program offer on arte.tv, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and other third-party platforms achieved a total of more than 1.8 billion video views last year.
