BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - RTL Germany boss Stephan Schmitter is critical of the uploading of public service content to the international platforms Tiktok and YouTube and has offered ARD cooperation on the streaming portal RTL+ instead. "RTL+ is the youngest of all streaming platforms, but we don't have any ARD content," said Schmitter on Thursday evening in Berlin at the MediaForward panel discussion with ARD Chairman Kai Gniffke. He was not interested in a uniform German platform, but in differentiating it from YouTube and Tiktok.

Gniffke had previously argued that ARD had to be present on Tiktok and YouTube, otherwise "we would sail miles past people of a younger age", while at the same time wanting to strengthen its own media library more and more.

Schmitter continues: "You go to Tiktok, a Chinese business model, you go to YouTube. By the way, there is no value in putting a lot of content on there. We can't do that because there is no monetization for us. And you're making one of our competitors even stronger."

His advice to ARD: "I'll jump over my shadow and work with RTL+. And we'll try to find solutions there that go beyond the usual licensing models, perhaps also beyond the current political framework." The RTL+ audience has an average age of 37. "That would be a wonderful pool." With its content, ARD has so far strengthened international platforms that are far away and "harm us all".

Gniffke described Schmitter's initiative as "interesting", but in return referred to the success of the ARD media library. "We will - this must be the first step - make this streaming platform very strong with ZDF," he explained. "And then I would find it incredibly interesting to talk about expanding such a platform to include commercially operated media houses." Gniffke is also the director-general of Südwestrundfunk (SWR)./bok/DP/ngu