Jörg Pilawa, Klaas Heuer-Umlauf, Joko Winterscheidt, Jörg Grabosch and Tom Sänger at the Entertainment Summit of the International Media Congress.

How does the Internet influence traditional TV formats? This was the question facing participants in the Entertainment Summit on Monday afternoon, including entertainment experts Jörg Grabosch (Managing Partner, Brainpool) and Tom Sänger (Head of Entertainment, Show & Daytime, RTL) and TV hosts Jörg Pilawa, Klaas Heuer-Umlauf and Joko Winterscheidt. Internet and mobile devices offer a steady flow of new interactive possibilities and entertainment. Host Joachim Huber from the daily Tagesspiegel posed the question: “What constitutes great entertainment in the first place?” All participants agreed that it wasn’t enough just to create a good program; what’s necessary first and foremost are those gut feelings, i.e. those key emotional moments. Grabosch, head of the Cologne-based production company Brainpool, noted: “In the end, it’s the content of the program that counts and not the medium via which it’s distributed.”  

For TV host and producer Jörg Pilawa, the Internet is also an ideal platform to find new target groups who would otherwise not use television. However, he noted that “in my experience, due to the various age structures, one of the only ways to get our audiences to the Internet is via contests and games.” For Tom Sänger, digital programming is not just an additional source of revenue; it also forms a major part of what today is an essential form of comprehensive branding. For him, the Internet is the logical extension of a TV show. He also sees the Internet as a springboard for young and aspiring talent on their way to getting on TV. He admitted, however, that shows – whether online or on TV – have to be creative and offer good entertainment. The two TV hosts Klaas Heuer-Umlauf and Joko Winterscheidt added that good entertainment alone is not so important, but that programs must first and foremost be captivating. Joko Winterscheidt noted: “There is no decisive or clearly defined quality attribute. Audiences just have to get hooked.”  

Joachim Huber posed a somewhat tongue-in-cheek question to the roundtable participants regarding whether or not audiences could forgive hosts for jumping from one broadcaster to another as often as they do. While RTL’s Tom Sänger believes that broadcasters can build up a solid audience identity only if they are constant, Jörg Pilawa considers such changes to be advantageous for all involved – as in the case of Markus Lanz, who was hardly noticed at RTL and became one of the most popular hosts on German television only when he moved to ZDF.

At the end of the discussion, all participants agreed that the value of entertainment will always be dependent on emotional moments – whether found on the Internet or on television.