Not only critical infrastructure: Now the first TV broadcaster is afraid of broadcast cancellations because of Omikron

Created: 01/21/2022, 16:03

By: Marc Dimitriu

Will TV shows be canceled soon because of Omikron?

© Thomas Trutschel/photothek.net/Imago

Because of the high number of infections, more and more people are losing their jobs.

Now TV broadcasters are already afraid of broadcast cancellations.

Stuttgart - The Omikron wave rushes through Germany.

New records for new infections beyond 100,000 are reported every day.

There is great concern that because of the many corona cases and the associated quarantines of contact persons, critical infrastructures in the police, fire brigade and health system, among others, will collapse.

The union spokesman for the Berlin police, Benjamin Jendro, said on Thursday on rbb's Inforadio that the curve of failures is currently showing "significantly upwards".

SWR is worried about broadcast failures because of Omikron

But other sectors are also concerned. Because of the increasing corona numbers, a TV station is already preparing for a possible cancellation of programs. Namely the Südwestrundfunk (SWR). "We at SWR are also threatened by significant staff shortages due to infections and quarantine," said director Kai Gniffke in Stuttgart on Friday.

"So it could be in the coming days and weeks that our accident scenarios become reality." The public broadcaster wants to avoid failures as much as possible.

"But we mustn't overwhelm ourselves or our colleagues," warned Gniffke in his director's blog.

"If you can't do it anymore, you can't do it anymore.

Then we have to lay down our arms and tell our audience that we can't make it right now because of the pandemic.

(md with dpa)