defilmtv1-7, Exercise 3: East and West; Dinner for One

Model answer:

Three points (any three): control (a state broadcaster run by the ruling party in the East, regional independent public broadcasters in the West); funding and structure (state-run versus regional boards and a licence fee); content (programmes such as The Black Channel designed to answer Western television, against a mixture of news, entertainment and crime series in the West); audience (most East Germans could watch Western stations, with a weak-signal region around Dresden); shared culture (the Sandmännchen puppet shown in both states).

Dinner for One is an unusual export because it is an English-language British sketch, recorded in Germany in 1963, that became a New Year's Eve ritual known to nearly everyone there, while in Britain it is almost unknown.

Check the details of the sketch and its history.