German broadcasters share recommendations in key collaboration
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John Moulding
| 16 October 2023
1 German broadcasters share recommendations in key collaboration

ARD and ZDF are demonstrating the power of public service broadcaster collaboration with a shared recommendation system that is the public-facing part of a common technical streaming platform. The media owners could seek wider European cooperation.

ARD and ZDF are two of the most important broadcasters in Europe, as well as Germany. They are determined to make it easier to access the significant universe of public broadcaster content via streaming. Users will also be able to find content from funk, phoenix, ARTE and 3sat via their shared discovery tools.

A shared login is also planned, including the possibility for users to create comprehensive watch lists from the entire pool of content.

For several months, ARD and ZDF have ensured that their content is available to watch from the streaming media library of the other broadcaster. The new shared search and recommendation takes this partnership to the next level, with both broadcasters emphasising that the recommendation system uses fair and transparent algorithms. The recommendation covers key genres like series, films, documentaries, culture and science.

The broadcasters say their common technical platform is based on open standards. Both companies will work together on the player. They have raised the possibility of closer cooperation with other European public service partners in the streaming space, too.


Comment:

Content discovery is mission-critical in the modern, fragmented viewing environment. Sharing content and content recommendations should, in theory, make it easier for viewers to find ARD and ZDF content.

Both broadcasters are taking a risk. All owned-and-operated apps give a media owner the chance to ‘capture’ a viewer and keep them in their service for hours, recommending new content they might like (from themselves). Offering visibility, and a truly neutral recommendation system, to third-party content carries the risk that you will get less viewing time, while another broadcaster benefits.

This collaboration suggests that ARD and ZDF are both very confident in their content offering, and they view shared recommendation as a case of ‘a rising tide floats all boats’. If they can make their shared content pool the go-to place where viewers first look in the digital space, it can be a win-win for them (leaving less viewing time for international SVODs or FASTs, for example).

The metric for measuring success is simple enough: do they increase their share of streaming viewing time?