Beijing (dpa) – ARD and ZDF have significantly reduced their coverage of the Winter Paralympics on traditional television this year compared to 2018.
Both stations together delivered around 65 hours of live programming from Pyeongchang, while the main program from Beijing is now less than half. The majority of the transmissions are instead made on the Internet, where the range of services is more extensive than four years ago.
ZDF starts on Friday with the opening ceremony and then reports four days “mainly in summaries”, as the broadcaster announced. There are also live streams between around 3 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. as well as the offer in the media libraries. The reason for the reduction is also that fewer Germans are at the start and there is no team sport.
The first takes over the reporting on Wednesday next week. “Unlike four years ago, ARD is focusing on audience-friendly broadcasting times on linear television this time,” the broadcaster said on request. Daily reporting begins between 5:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and “partly includes highlights into the afternoon”. It also said: “In addition, there is an extensive live stream offer with up to three parallel channels, which has been massively expanded compared to 2018”.