Samenvatting

Over one year after the launch of Funk, the German public online-only youth content network registers exponentially growing viewing numbers. As part of the public broadcasting system it is liable to statutory requirements and is supposed to meet the democratic, cultural and social needs of 14- to 29-year old Germans. It formulates its own objective as to orient, inform, entertain and involve the audience. To investigate how the audience experiences the network an online survey was conducted applying the Uses and Gratifications theory.

The analysis results reflect an overall gender gap of gratifications obtained (GO) from Funk, whereby males overall receive less gratifications from Funk than females do. However, it should be noted that the values overall are not strikingly high but in fact rather having a tendency towards negative scopes. 5

Further, the results reveal that overall Funk seems to miss their point of fulfilling a major part of the target audiences’ needs according to their set of objectives anchored in the public law contract. Concludingly, the conducted research indicates that Funk is not meeting their own objectives and there is room for improvement. Based on the results, it is strongly recommended to Funk to put more time and effort to internalize and develop communication with their audience. Not only to fulfill audience needs, but also to understand where certain parts of the content network need improvement and what kind of improvement.