TV Made in Germany
October 18, 2007
Germans settling down in front of the television on a Thursday evening can take their pick from at least six American series, dubbed into German. If they want to watch a German-made drama or comedy, the pickings are much slimmer. That is the case almost every night of the week.
This phenomenon has led some politicians to say there should be a little less "House," "CSI: Miami" or "Desperate Housewives" on screens, and a little more "Alarm for Cobra 11," or "Scene of the Crime," two of the small number of successful German series.
"A quota for German series could preserve our TV production industry," Erwin Ruddel, a media spokesman for the conservative CDU party told German tabloid Bild in a story published Wednesday. "The German industry shouldn't get a raw deal."
Increasingly, it is looking like American imports are crowding out German-made productions. Five years ago, German series were outperforming their American cousins in the ratings game. But then came the explosion of high-quality, well-written US series like "Lost" or "House," which draw big audiences in Germany. Suddenly the lower-budget German series looked pale in comparison and even naïve.
Germany's center-left Social Democrats have also called for concrete action against this American invasion.
"The SPD is basically in favor of a quota for German series," said Social Democratic parliamentarian Monika Griefahn.
Reinhard Grindel, a CDU parliamentarian and former TV journalist wants to institute a voluntary quota system on homemade series. So far the suggestions have fallen on deaf ears, even though more politicians appear open to the idea.
Commercial stations not convinced
But commercial broadcasters, who broadcast most of the American series, have come out against the idea of any kind of mandate of what they broadcast.
A spokesman for the RTL network, Christin Korner, called the idea absurd.
"We are supporters of the idea of letting our viewers decide what they want to see and what they don't," he told the newspaper Bild.
The current debate is reminiscent of a similar discussion in 2004 about whether a quota system should have been introduced around music, since German music appeared to be becoming a rarity on the republic's airways. A advisory commission, "Culture in Germany," studied the question then and decided not to take action about determining what kind of music radio stations should play.
"Quality and variety do not come from a designated quota system," Gitta Connmann, head of the commission, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
She pointed to the example of the Germany TV series "Derrick," a highly successful production which ran from 1974 to 1988 and was exported to more than 80 countries. She did say she could imagine a voluntary commitment from broadcasters to support German TV talent.
Money is also a factor in German TV production, say analysts, which a quota system can do little to address. The US series "Lost" has some ten scriptwriters who each make over a million dollars a year. Those are the kinds of numbers that German producers and writers can only dream about.