Gossip Girl, coming soon to Germany's FemTV. Photo: DPA

German women to get TV channel of their own

Published: 7 Nov 09 11:54 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091107-23095.html

The German media giant ProSiebenSat.1 plans to launch Germany’s first television channel directed exclusively toward a female audience early next year, the company’s head told Der Spiegel magazine.

The channel, to be called FemTV, will be available on terrestrial television and won’t require a cable subscription said ProSiebenSat.1 boss Andreas Bartl, according to the latest issue of the magazine.

“In Germany there over 100 women’s magazines, but no broadcasters for women,” Bartl said. “Something is missing from the landscape.”

FemTV’s programming will focus on “fashion, lifestyle, beauty, food and health,” according to Bartl and will also carry American TV series, such as ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Brothers & Sisters,’ and shows which have not yet aired in Germany.

The head of the new channel will be Katja Hofem-Best, who previously ran DMAX, a men’s channel in addition to Discovery Networks Deutschland up until August of this year.

Bartl said FemTV would be profitable within two years, a necessity for the heavily-indebted broadcaster. “These days no one has five years' time,” to make a new channel work, said Bartl.

He added that the channel hoped to draw between two to five percent of the 19- to 49-year-old female audience.

DDP/DPA/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

13:11 November 7, 2009 by Celeon
I thought they already have Sat 1 , RTL and Pro Sieben. *lol*

If these are no female tv channels then there arent really any.

DMAX rules :-)
18:22 November 7, 2009 by Heinrich der Zweite
The channel must be presented with deep satisfaction, including a wide spectrum of interest.
20:34 November 7, 2009 by egotrippin
Hmm.. the article is a big fail. There already was a tv channel for women in Germany called tm3 a few years back. It was a big failure. After it didn't become profitable Rupert Murdoch bought it as a cheap entry to the German market and tried to rebuilt it by buying the Champions League rights and showwing football on this former womens network.... which made it an even bigger fail. Murdoch then gave up and today this channel is called 9live and Germanys most successful tv network.. not.

And seeing that the new channel has the same plans as tm3 with "fashion, lifestyle, beauty, food and health" i can also see the same future.. minus the champions league (this mistake will not be repeated i guess)
08:43 November 8, 2009 by pepsionice
So, lets say they get 3 percent of the women in this 19-to-49 age group....this basically adds up to roughly 450,000 women who might watch it occasionally. Remember, there's only 80 million Germans total. Take out the other age groups and the Turkish women who will never watch the channel....and it's not a huge number. It'll practically impossible to ensure a profit with this number unless you really get some iron-clad commercial sponsors signed up.
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