Affiliates

When ZDF Enterprises was founded it became the cornerstone of a commercial network that would contribute to the strengthening of the ZDF Group by means of timely and targeted activities, both starting new companies and acquiring interests in existing ones. In this process we adhere to the following principles:

  • The creation and safeguarding of a core enterprise with program and media independence, in view of increasing concentration in the media industry,
  • The acquisition of media expertise, especially in the sectors of production, marketing and development,
  • Appropriate and equitable involvement in added value primarily generated or initiated by ZDF, and
  • Intensification of co-operation between and involvement with major talent in the ZDF Group who have contributed significantly to the creation of the ZDF image.

To date, via subsidiaries and participating interests, ZDF Enterprises has been able to develop production capacity in the key program sectors of fiction (Network Movie), documentaries (doc.station and Gruppe 5) and children’s programs (Studio.TV.Film und Kinderfilm).

In addition, strengthening and expanding utilisation activities has been achieved, e. g. in the music sector via Enterprises Sonor.

An overview of the ZDF Enterprises Group portfolio:

Year of Foundation Affiliate ZDFE Share General Manager
2007 Acquired interest Bavaria Fernsehproduktion GmbH 50% Dr. Matthias Esche, Jan S. Kaiser, Armin Rabe
1999 Foundation doc.station Medienproduktion GmbH 100% Hartmut Klenke
2001 Acquired interest (Founded 1992) Enterprises Sonor Musik GmbH 50% Dr. Rolf Moser
2002 Acquired interest Gruppe 5 Filmproduktion GmbH 49% Uwe Kersken, Christel Fomm
1999 Acquired intermediate interest Kinderfilm GmbH 22,5%* Ingelore König
2010 Foundation Mainstream Networks Holding GmbH & Co. KG 26% Gottfried Zmeck
1998 Foundation Network Movie Film- und Fernsehproduktionen GmbH & Co. KG 100% Wolfgang Cimera, Jutta Lieck-Klenke
2010 Founded Studio Hamburg DocLights GmbH 49% Jörn Röver, Michaela Hummel, Andreas Knoblauch
2011 Foundation Studio Hamburg Enterprises GmbH 50% Jens Uwe Welge, Peter Lang
1999 Acquired interest Studio.TV.Film GmbH 45% Albert Schäfer
2000 Foundation ZDF Digital Medienproduktion GmbH 90% Christian Massmann
1999 Foundation ZDF Medienprojekte-Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG 100% Peter Lang

* indirect participation via Studio.TV.Film