German international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle to revamps it's TV service

BY: Jörn Krieger

Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) is to strengthen its position in the international media landscape through a revised TV service, a new website and a new corporate design.

The changes, which will come into force on 6 February 2012, would be “a milestone” for an improved representation of Germany around the world, DW’s general director Erik Bettermann said in Berlin.

The Spanish-language TV service for Latin America will be expanded from two to 20 hours per day. The 24-hour schedule will be completed with fours of German programming. The move is part of the general reform of Germany’s international broadcaster. According to Bettermann, the core of this process is being able to better communicate with the target audience through new, focused, language-based channels, regionalised programming and a variety of multimedia content which can be used online.

DW will customize its TV line-ups for other regions as well. The basic offering will be a new channel with 24 hours of English programming which will broadcast to viewers North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. The service will be complemented by regional channels focusing on other languages: In North and Latin America and Asia the second channel will be made up of 20 hours of programming in German and four hours in English.

In the Arab world, there will be a supplementary channel featuring 10 hours of Arabic programming and 14 hours of English. In Europe, DW will broadcast 18 hours of English and six hours of German programming.

In total, DW will offer six TV channels from 6 February 2012: the basis DW channel offering 24 hours of English for North America, Africa, Asia and Australia; DW (Europe) with 18 hours of English programming and six hours of German in morning and evening primetime blocks; DW (Latinoamérica) with 20 hours of Spanish and four hours of German; DW (Amerika) with 20 hours of German and four hours of English; DW (Arabia) with 10 hours of Arabic and 14 hours of English; DW (Asia) with 20 hours of German and four hours of English

Deutsche Welle will also launch its completely redesigned website on 6 February 2012. The multilingual multimedia online portal will be available at the new address http://www.dw.de. “The new website will encompass everything DW has to offer – articles, audio, video and interactive content,” said Bettermann. “dw.de will be a source of reliable information from Germany and high-quality journalistic content in 30 languages.”

A new corporate identity has been developed to unite the organisation including the new television and online services. Bettermann said that more and more countries are looking for attention in the battle for opinions around the globe. “With this in mind, the new corporate design is an essential investment for a successful presence in the international media industry,” he explained.

DW’s new logo will represent a unified symbol for all of DW’s service and language offerings around the world.