German women to get TV channel of their own

The channel, to be called FemTV, will be available on terrestrial television and won’t require a cable subscription said ProSiebenSat.1 boss Andreas Bartl, according to the latest issue of the magazine.

“In Germany there over 100 women’s magazines, but no broadcasters for women,” Bartl said. “Something is missing from the landscape.”

FemTV’s programming will focus on “fashion, lifestyle, beauty, food and health,” according to Bartl and will also carry American TV series, such as ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Brothers & Sisters,’ and shows which have not yet aired in Germany.

The head of the new channel will be Katja Hofem-Best, who previously ran DMAX, a men’s channel in addition to Discovery Networks Deutschland up until August of this year.

Bartl said FemTV would be profitable within two years, a necessity for the heavily-indebted broadcaster. “These days no one has five years’ time,” to make a new channel work, said Bartl.

He added that the channel hoped to draw between two to five percent of the 19- to 49-year-old female audience.