Money no object for Germany’s RTÉ equivalent

The piece below is from The Irish Times Weekend newspaper. It is by Berlin correspondent Derek Scally. It throws some perspective on the current RTÉ ongoing saga.

As spending by public broadcasters goes, RTÉ largesse towards “talent” is remarkable – but not unique, as this reporter discovered in mid-2011.

Ireland had just entered its bailout and the troika was in town – and so were the Germans. Tom Buhrow, a high-profile evening news anchor for Germany’s ARD public television, was in Dublin for a live broadcast.

By chance so was I. We arranged to meet for an interview in Temple Bar, where I expected to talk for five minutes with him and a cameraman.

Waiting for me outside the Quay’s Bar, however, were Buhrow, at least one cameraman, two producers, a make-up man and a satellite truck parked up a lane with at least one technical person inside. The grandest touch was someone laying dolly tracks for a smooth camera pan across the Temple Bar cobblestones. As the camera rolled in the drizzle, Buhrow asked me why the pre-crisis the Irish had been so spendthrift.

Feeling dizzy, I suppressed the urge to turn to the camera and tell viewers that their licence fee was being squandered – on hotels, flights and hourly rates – for five minutes of television from Dublin.

It was my introduction to how – for some, at least – money is no object inside Germany’s equivalent to RTÉ or the BBC.

Sprawling federation

ARD, a sprawling federation of nine independent regional public broadcasting networks, shares with a second television network (ZDF) and public radio (Deutschlandfunk) a huge funding pot of €8.4 billion annually.This is replenished by an annual household charge of €220, deducted irrespective of whether you have a television or not. This reformed licence fee was introduced a decade ago and boosted public broadcasting income considerably – but has also triggered more critical debate of how the money is spent. The focus in Germany is less on well-paid “talent” – of which there is plenty – but the ARD’s nine directors general. Together they take home €2.9 million annually (before bonuses) – the equivalent of 13,000 household charges.

Buhrow has risen to become director general of WDR, the largest ARD affiliate, with the highest salary of €416,000 – 16 per cent more than that of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The most notorious ARD director general is Patricia Schlesinger. A year ago she was forced out as head of RBB, the ARD affiliate in Berlin-Brandenburg over a series of undeclared bonuses and a consultant contract for her husband worth €100,000 a year.

While overseeing huge cost cuts in production, Schlesinger found €650,000 to renovate her own office suite. There was a company car, a €145,000 Audi A8 in midnight blue with special “massage seats”, and at least six private trips with family members and eight catered private dinners at her Berlin apartment – all charged to the broadcaster.

Echoes of the crisis

With echoes of the crisis at RTÉ, news journalists at RBB spent weeks this time last year reporting on management avarice and ineffectual supervisory board oversight. A year on, the focus has shifted to the wider ARD network and whether structures created in the 1950s are fit for purpose in the 2020s. With nine main television stations, 76 radio stations and extensive online offerings, the German-wide ARD system operates on another scale to RTÉ. And yet certain reform demands are familiar.For instance some ARD affiliates are promising salary caps of €180,000 for leading managers. Buhrow has supported the move – for others, not himself. But a year after their boss departed in Berlin, RBB employees say little has changed: journalists and production staff, many working on precarious work contracts, face cost cut demands from managers and supervisory board members – often appointees from the unions and political parties – earning six-figure salaries.

“Public service broadcasting is a giant cruise ship with sun deck after sun deck of people who drink champagne, eat canapés and feel very important,” said one RBB employee.

“Below deck in the galley, meanwhile, slaves row for their lives, getting a little bread and water. If times are tough, those upstairs say: ‘Oh, we have to shed some load’ and throw a few slaves overboard.”