WDR cuts 76 programmes by the end of 2027. Its portfolio halves by 2030

WDR announced the plan on 25 September 2026. The broadcaster from North Rhine-Westphalia will drop 76 programmes and digital offers by the end of 2027. By 2030 it wants about 300 offers instead of roughly 600, and 133 fewer staff posts.

Frau tv and Satire am Sonntag leave the schedule

The list of cuts crosses every medium. On television, “Frau tv” goes. On radio, “Satire am Sonntag” on WDR 4 goes. Digital formats such as “studio M” and “Lisas Paarschitt” go too, and the whole Doc Esser package of website, newsletter, podcast and Facebook page closes. The nature strand “Erlebnis Erde” moves to digital first. In their place WDR plans up to 100 new digital offers.

Linear TV shrinks to the hours between 5pm and 10.15pm

WDR will concentrate its linear television on the evening, from 5pm to 10.15pm. Katrin Vernau, the broadcaster’s director general, said about three quarters of its resources are still tied up in classic linear programming. She named changing media use, rising costs and uncertain financing as the reasons.

The wider picture is the same one advertisers have been watching in Germany. The German ad market grew 0.9 percent in August, with the growth on the online side. Public broadcasters have mostly answered by adding streaming, as ZDF did with more than 15 themed channels.

Verdi’s Christoph Schmitz-Dethlefsen calls it saving to death

The union Verdi rejected the plan. Christoph Schmitz-Dethlefsen said the restructuring “saves the stations to death”. WDR has about 4,000 permanent staff and some 2,500 freelancers. Freelance commissions will fall, though the broadcaster has not said by how much. Every third post left by a retirement will stay empty until 2030, and about a fifth of classic production jobs move to technology roles.

Media owners are cutting where the audience already left. Google’s referrals to publishers fell 40.2 percent in a year, and linear television is losing evening reach to streaming at the same time.

The savings are physical as well as editorial: WDR wants to give up around 100,000 square metres of office and production space by the end of 2028, measured against 2017. Set against that, the editorial bill is 76 offers gone by the end of 2027 and roughly 200 more by 2030.