Marc Katz (ARD)
Germany’s federal structure is reflected in the way public service broadcasting is organized in the country: nine independent state broadcasters jointly shape the ARD programme – supplemented by national brands such as ARD. Mediathek, ARD Audiothek, Tagesschau, Sportschau, and KiKA.
In the past, technical developments at ARD have been highly fragmented. This also applies to the development of video and audio players that are used on the web, on mobile devices or even on smart TV sets. In the past, identical technical requirements were followed by up to 25 resource-intensive different player implementations, each with its own solutions for UX (user experience), UI (user interface), technical implementation, and maintenance.
When new formats such as UHD were introduced at ARD, it was sometimes very difficult to communicate the necessary implementations to all development teams. It could take a very long time until all players were capable of playing the new format, allowing it to be offered to users across the board.
Over the years, ARD therefore developed the idea of a centrally developed video and audio player that could be used across all regional broadcasters and national brands. The aim was to develop a scalable, modular component that would flexibly support both streaming and news scenarios and adapt to new requirements through continuous development.
Modular architecture
The new ARD.Player ecosystem thus offers a standardized, cross- platform architecture for video and audio players. The central component here is the ARD.Player Core, whose single codebase (based on Typescript) is identical on all platforms and provides the following implementations:
- a standardized and stable architecture;
- a common data model;
- a generic API;
- extensibility via add-ons;
- and a uniform user interface and user experience.
The architecture combines native performance with centralized maintainability. Thanks to direct access to platform-specific APIs, functions that are specific to iOS or Android, for example, can be seamlessly integrated while the codebase remains the same.
The combination of a uniform core and flexibly expandable add-ons allows ARD.Player to strike a balance between standardization and technical individualization. This enables seamless integration into heterogeneous system landscapes while maintaining the same user experience.
Wide feature range
ARD.Player currently supports more than 50 features. These include standard market functionalities such as the option to skip intros and outros of a programme or the option to switch between different audio tracks and subtitle languages.
But it also supports more modern features such as highlight-based navigation in the livestream or ‘on demand’ content that allows users to jump to editorially curated scenes during the livestream. Furthermore, the multistream feature allows users to switch between different video streams of a broadcast (e.g., an Olympics event or a live concert) and choose their favourite competition or camera position.
User-centred development
In our product development, we pay special attention to a user- centred approach. Using qualitative in-depth interviews, prototypes and user testing, concepts are tested and validated before they are actually implemented. In this way, we ensure that the developed solutions address the needs of the users and offer a convincing user experience.
In order to promote innovation in the public service context internationally, an open-source release of the ARD.Player is planned. The aim is to make this technological basis for modern, trustworthy streaming and news services accessible throughout Europe. Its modular architecture, data protection compliance, accessibility and independence from proprietary providers make it the ideal solution for media companies looking for a reliable technological basis for their digital offerings.
This article first appeared in the September 2025 issue of tech-i magazine.