9Live is a commercial German TV channel. It originated from a channel called tm3 . Most of its programming is lottery and quiz games, in which the viewer can participate over the phone.

The channel finances itself mainly through money paid for the phone calls. Independently of whether the calling party will have the chance to talk to the quiz host, they will pay 49 euro cent to call from Germany, 0.90 CHF (appr. 60 cents) from Swizerland or 70 cents from Austria. The CEO Christiane zu Salm herself sees the channel as "participation TV" ("Mitmachfernsehen").

The games are legally controversial. In German law, there is the distinction between "Glücksspiel" (gambling) and "Gewinnspiel" (lottery), the latter theoretically being gambling without money being bet. Gambling is not allowed on German television. In court, 9Live defended itself with the argument that a phone call does not cost more than sending a postcard to advertisement-financed lotteries of magazines and TV-shows, which themselves are considered a "Gewinnspiel".

The total revenue of 9Live was 60.6 million euro in the year 2002 and 78.7 million in 2003. For comparison, during broadcast the channel proudly claims to have paid out close to one million euro in November 2004 alone.

Criticism

Critics accuse 9Live of deceiving people about their chances, for example by deliberately keeping the rules of the quiz vague, alternating them randomly and rarely explaining them even if a solution is presented.

The channel attracted attention to itself when it announced a "show for the unemployed", in which the caller had the chance of winning employment. Minister of Labour Walter Riester called the idea absurd and cynical.

Sources

• [1] post about lottery law in Germany (German)
• [2] German wikipedia entry from January 2005

Links

• 9Live-Homepage (German)
• Abzocke mit undurchsichtigen Spielregeln? Critical clip as part of the TV magazine ARD (TV) plusminus (German)
• article of "Report Mainz" about the planned show for the unemployed (German)