Markus Lanz, Horst Lichter, Oliver Welke earn millions on ZDF
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In the current discussion about an increase in the broadcasting fee, “Welt am Sonntag” has published excerpts from an internal ZDF fee list, which the newspaper claims to have available. The table was created in March 2023 and was recently discussed internally on ZDF. This means that the remuneration of a number of prominent presenters is significantly higher than the salary of the ZDF director. Norbert Himmler receives an annual salary of 372,000 euros.
According to the list, the front runner is Markus Lanz, who receives almost 1.9 million euros per year for his moderations. For TV chef Horst Lichter it was 1.7 million euros, for Oliver Welke (“heute-Show”) it was 1.2 million euros. The newspaper mentions sums between 630,000 and 300,000 euros for Johannes B. Kerner, Andrea Kiewel, Mai Thi Leiendecker and Giovanni Zarella.
So-called gross agreements, in which VAT is already included, exist for Maybrit Illner, Marietta Slomka, Rudi Cerne and Christian Sievers, among others, with a range between 480,000 and 350,000 euros. The preliminary report does not indicate which exact activities or services will be compensated for with these fees.
Politicians on the ZDF television council are demanding transparency
According to the newspaper, members of the ZDF television council, which represents the interests of the general public towards ZDF and advises the director, criticize the secrecy of such fees. “As with other public institutions in Europe, contributors are entitled to full transparency about the use of the contribution funds,” Rainer Robra (CDU), Minister of State and Head of the State Chancellery in Saxony-Anhalt, is quoted as saying.
The Saxon CDU member of the Bundestag Christiane Schenderlein advocates publishing the details of contracts “from a volume of 250,000 euros”. Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff (Die Linke), head of the State Chancellery in Thuringia, is demanding a maximum limit for fee contracts. “Just as a trivial limit seems sensible, a maximum limit is certainly also appropriate,” the “Welt am Sonntag” quoted the television council member as saying. First, existing contracts would have to be made transparent.
According to the report, the ZDF board of directors recently discussed “proactive disclosure of top fees.” In a vote, opponents of this proposal would have narrowly prevailed.
According to calculations by the independent commission for determining the financial needs of broadcasters (KEF), the broadcasting fee is set to increase by 58 cents to 18.94 euros per month from 2025. There is resistance to this from the CDU-led state governments of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony. The federal states must agree to an increase.
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