Funk (service)

Funk is a German video-on-demand service operated by the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. Responsible for the service is the ARD member SWR. Funk describes itself as a content network. The target group are people between the age of 14 and 29.
About.
Funk is aimed at people between the ages of 14 and 29 who rarely use the traditional means for public broadcasting. Two thirds of the project is financed by ARD and one third by ZDF. Funk produces over 70 different, regularly published programs for social media platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, Snapchat, and the funk.net web app. These are played out on their own channels or accounts. The programs focus on information, orientation and entertainment. In addition, some series are distributed under license, some in the original English version. The individual programs are produced by various private production companies, the company's own production companies or the broadcasters themselves.
The funk-Network is ruled by the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag. This includes a set review of all broadcasts in the form of meetings with producers at least every six months.
History.
The director of the SWR, Peter Boudgoust, publicly advocated a public service offer for the target audience in 2011. On 27 November 2012 SWR expressed the wish to merge EinsPlus with ZDFkultur. The new station created by this merger should be produced jointly by ARD and ZDF and primarily target a young audience. The ZDF expressed itself cautiously and pointed out that in addition a decision by politics would be inevitable. However, ZDF had already made a similar statement in advance and did not rule out, for example, a discontinuation of ZDFkultur in favor of a joint youth channel.