MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - The ARD Mediathek was the most successful streaming platform of a German TV station in 2023. As the ARD Program Directorate announced in Munich on Thursday, an average of around 2.3 million people were reached daily this year.

According to the information, the ARD Mediathek is well ahead of its competitors such as the ZDF Mediathek (1.9 million), RTL+ (0.8 million) and Joyn (0.4 million). "With a daily reach of 0.9 million users, the ARD Mediathek is also ahead of the younger user group aged between 20 and 49," the report continues. This is based on measurement data from AGF and GfK video research.

"The ARD Mediathek continues to grow and remains the leader among German TV streaming portals," said ARD Program Director Christine Strobl according to the press release. "This shows us that we are on the right track with our program reform. It is paying off to strengthen the media library and shift funds to digital without losing sight of our traditional broadcasting channels."

People are particularly interested in documentaries and documentary series as well as fiction in the ARD Mediathek, it was reported. For example, 21 million stream views were registered for the fourth season of the successful format "Babylon Berlin". Another of the most popular series this year was "Tage, die es nicht gab", whose eight episodes were viewed 13.2 million times. And "Asbestos", whose five episodes of the media library series achieved 9.4 million stream views.

The most-viewed films included the Münster "Tatort: MagicMom" with 2.3 million and the North Sea crime thriller "Sorensen fängt Feuer" with Bjarne Mädel, which achieved 2.1 million stream views.

Among the documentary series, the sixth season of "Feuer & Flamme", about the everyday lives of firefighters in the Ruhr region, achieved almost four million views. Serial formats from the areas of sport and culture were also successful: "Unparteiisch - Deutschlands Elite-Schiedsrichter" achieved 3.1 million views, while the musician biography "Echt - Unsere Jugend" reached 1.7 million./bok/DP/tih