Rundfunk
Find broadcasts
Spend your broadcasting fees
Decide on your own which broadcasts you want to support.
participate now
More influence for the audience
The results are public and quantifiable. In this manner, payers of public broadcasting fees get a strong voice for the very first time.
More data for broadcasters
The public feedback is a win-win-project for both sides: The audience gets more influence and broadcasters can improve their program.
As-is situation
This figure shows the actual expenditure by genre for broadcaster "Das Erste" and "ZDF" (source: 20th KEF report)
This is exactly what we have to figure out!
Most important differences compared to TV ratings
Rundfunk MITBESTIMMEN
Everyone can participate. The data is collected through a website and the results are published on the web. The users decide independently of usage, simply according to their conscience. There are more and more new users and the results are not extrapolated. The goal is: More democracy.
TV ratings
A preselected group can participate. The data is collected through a special TV box and the results are subject to charges. The users decide depending on usage, simply throuh the remote control. There are 5000 representative homes and the results are extrapolated. The goal is: Targeted advertising.
Join the Open-Source-Community ♥
This application is maintained by the open source community, especially by our developers on Agile Ventures. If you would like to join our meetings then you can find invite links on meetup.com and on the events page. The Agile Ventures signup page gives you access to our community messenger "Slack".
Media reports
FAQ
Is this a representative survey?
This is not a representative survey, but an example how to bring more democracy into public broadcasting. We want to show that it is technically possible, it does not cost much, the contributors have their own motivation to publish their wishes and they make wise decisions.
How can you prevent people from voting nonsense?
Not at all. That is democracy. But apparently people do not give money to nonsense after all. On the contrary, many give money to cultural programmes and investigative journalism, content that comes off badly in TV rankings.
Does anybody care?
Yes. Just the data is enough to have an impact. With your decision, you tell the creators and the broadcasting councils to keep your favourite broadcasts on the air.
Where is the difference to TV ratings?
The results are independent of usage. Apparently, the current results do not correlate with TV ratings. We hypothesize that it is caused by the different question: Which content does one consider valuable? Thus, users reflect their decisions and the results are necessarily different.
Are the data representative?
Everyone is allowed to participate, there is no pre-selection. So we can not garantee that a truly representative cross-section is involved. Rundfunk MITBTIMIMMEN also does not claim to be a representative survey anyway: The results are not extrapolated. Each user decides only about his own fees. In order to achieve an improvement, however, this is quite sufficient. Few data are better than no data at all.
What if I don't use public broadcasting?
But you pay the broadcasting fees, don't you? Then you should also have a right on content and decide how your fees should be used.
Are the results binding in any sense?
The results are not binding and they are not an attack on the autonomy of public broadcasting. But they are a basis for a debate about quality. The fact that the results are public and quantifiable means that fee payers receive a strong voice for the very first time.
How about minorities?
"Rundfunk MITBESTIMMEN" is made especially for minorities. For example, you can support a few programs, but support these programs particularly strong. Small groups would be heard. Such an information would be expressed by e.g. the metric "per capita", ie. how important a program is for the target group.
Who is financing this?
We ourselves. With our private money. But we applied for funding already.
Do you have a business model?
No. We are not planning to generate a profit with this app. Although donations, seed funding and crowdfunding are also regarded as business models. We can imagine that for the future.
Who are you?
"Rundfunk Mitbestimmen" is mainly developed by volunteers of Agile Ventures, an online learner community for open-source software developers.
Who can see my email address?
Our data is stored in a server in Frankfurt am Main. Since the authentication works through a service called Auth0, the login data is stored in two data centers in Frankfurt and Dublin. Only core developers have access to the data.
Is it free software / open-source?
Yes, it is. 100% free (as in freedom), licensed under MIT license. You can find the source code on Github. Please contact us if you want to join. We are looking forward to it!
How can I help?
Test this app and publish your data! Do you encounter bugs or do you miss a certain feature? Do you know somebody who works in public broadcasting or in politics? Are you a developer? Then get in touch!
You have more questions?
Simply drop us an email. We love to answer your questions and we will add them here.
