Germany’s Television Landscape: Actors and Production Areas

This chapter begins the actual investigation of German television drama, starting with an introduction to its structures. It describes production areas and central players by focusing on programme commissioners—a role that, like that of the commissioning editor, has diversified considerably since the 2010s, due to pay TV and streaming services beginning to produce German TV series. The second part of the chapter focuses on production companies. These are a very decisive factor in television drama production in Germany, since they, and not the broadcasters themselves, are who generally produce the series and kick off the screenwriting process alongside the actual writers. Regarding the quality drama segment, this look at production companies shows that the boundaries between television and film are becoming increasingly blurred. In addition to the current quality production—which in Germany is mostly concretised in miniseries—the chapter presents other series types and production areas that shape the German television series landscape. Hybrid forms of television film and series as well as broadcasting slots are taken into account. Schedule placements continue to structure German series production up to the present day, and, despite the non-linear distribution channels enabled by the internet, they still represent an important reference point in practitioners’ negotiations.