Overview
- ARD program director Christine Strobl publicly proposed a larger, multi-broadcaster national Vorentscheid at the Medientage München on Thursday, calling for several networks to share the German Eurovision selection.
- Executives from RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 responded positively on the same panel, with RTL content chief Inga Leschek and ProSiebenSat.1’s Henrik Pabst saying they are open to talks and further discussion.
- ARD says it is already in talks with ProSiebenSat.1, RTL Deutschland and ZDF about a possible joint format for 2028, but ZDF’s participation has not been confirmed and no agreement exists yet.
- Preparations for the 2027 German selection remain on the current track under SWR within ARD, so any new multi-broadcaster model would realistically target rollout in 2028.
- The proposal builds on past cross-broadcaster successes, aims to pool audiences and production resources, and responds to several years of weak German Eurovision results, though commercial, production and timing details are still to be settled.