Bild (alternatively known as Bild TV) is an German broadcasting free to air private news channel, which is the television division of the Bild Newspaper. It is part of the WeltN24 broadcasting group. It receiving its broadcasting licence in June 2021 and started broadcasting on the 22nd of August 2021.
Bild is promoted by the publishing company Visoon Media and is supported by advertisements.
License and incorporation
The broadcasting license needed to begin broadcasting as traditional television broadcaster with 24/7 operation was sought in August 2021. On the 24th of June in 2021 the announcement to broadcast the license declared. In the month of July 2021 Bild began testing operations using Astra. In the Astra 19.2 Ost Astra 19.2 Ost satellite Astra 19.2 Ost, on transponder 33, there was a signal for the date for the start of the transmission.
Criticism and reception
An interview was conducted in an interview with Johannes Nichelmann from Deutschlandfunk Kultur on the 22nd of August 2021, the critic Matthias Dell described Bild TV as „empty, poorly produced and boring“ and contrasted their lack of professionalism Bild TV with „student television or a public access channel“. In his TV review on the 23rd of August 2021 Alexander Krei from DWDL.de described the beginning of broadcasting in Bild TV as Bild broadcast channel, describing it as „television without a resting pulse“ and said about the way Bild „rushed through the program“.
ARD Program director Christine Strobl announced on 3 October 2021, a week following that elections in 2021 the possibility to initiate the legal route at Bild TV because the broadcaster has taken on board the 6 p.m. elections forecasts of ARD as well as ZDF and, for a few minutes, the Berlin round of ARD and ZDF broadcast. Strobl also stated about Bild TV that she found „the type of reporting highly problematic: this type of exaggeration, this focus on dividing society and dealing with facts“. Bild TV is „clearly following a single goal which is to denigrate public broadcasting in all its forms.