CoreMedia Case Study: ZDF.de

CASE STUDY: MEDIA
www.coremedia.com
ZDF.DE The Future of Web Content
Management for TV Broadcasting
ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) has been broadcasting as a national German public
television network since April 1963. Based in Mainz, ZDF is one of the three most popular
TV broadcasters in Germany. In addition to its main program schedule, ZDF broadcasts the
digital special-interest channels ZDFneo, ZDFkultur, and ZDFinfo and operates the channels 3sat,
Phoenix, ARTE, and KiKA in cooperation with other TV companies. Always ahead of its time,
ZDF pioneered color television in Germany (in 1967) and in 2007 became the first German
broadcaster to switch to the 16:9 format.
CASECASE
STUDY:
STUDY:
HEALTHCARE
MEDIA
THE CHALLENGE: More Structure, Greater
Creative Flexibility, and Improved Usability
AT A GLANCE
The Project in Numbers
35 million visits/month
40 million video views/month
46,000 videos
200 active program areas
Three independent websites:
ZDF.de, ZDFsport.de, heute.de
The Challenges
More structure, greater creative
flexibility, and improved usability
The aim was to give visitors to the ZDF
website as well as the online editors
access to even more clearly structured
offerings with maximum usability.
Requested in particular was the overhaul of the portal structures and
interface design, as well as the
creation a new editorial interface.
The Solution
Powerful content management
and multi-channel delivery with
CoreMedia CMS
CoreMedia’s CMS fulfilled the ZDF
online editorial team’s complex set of
requirements in just six months. The
content of the newly implemented
editor was customized to meet the
needs of the editorial team, getting
the most out of the functionality of
CoreMedia Studio.
Website
http://www.zdf.de
Since the beginning of Web Content Management (WCM) as a concept in
mid-1990s, WCM technologies have matured from simple publishing tools to
high-performance context delivery infrastructures. This remarkable development
places entirely new demands on media technology. The ZDF television network
is a prime example of how large broadcasting companies can keep pace with
these developments and successfully employ the possibilities offered by the
Internet for the benefit of their business. What the public broadcaster launched
in 1996 as a simple homepage has since grown into a fully integrated, partly
automated multimedia platform. The latest upgrades to ZDF’s online presence
were implemented in the course of a complete re-launch, and the technology for
this innovative step toward the future of the Web was provided by CoreMedia.
Within a period of 16 years, ZDF’s online presence mastered the transformation
from an infotainment website to a broadcasting portal with a selection of news
channels and an award-winning media library: Mediathek. In the mid-1990s,
when having an Internet presence was becoming a necessity for every business,
the ZDF homepage remained fairly modest. Five years later it experienced a
dramatic but necessary change: the news channels heute.de and ZDFsport.de
separated from the parent site ZDF.de and operated via their own WCM system.
In 2003, the various program formats were integrated into the portal, each with
its own page, and in 2007 the Mediathek was added with the CoreMedia CMS.
With this change, ZDF forged a new trail, because now the online portal was not
only an extension of the broadcasting channels, but was also able to reach its own
audience. “Stamp-sized TV” on the Internet became a full-fledged multimedia
viewing program.
Over the entire period — from the first news portals to today — internal workflows
at the public media network needed to be adjusted to changing requirements
while the WCM solution and the underlying systems had to adapt to a growing set
of demands. Performance and scalability were therefore important reasons why
ZDF chose CoreMedia in 2005 to create its Mediathek. The CoreMedia CMS and
especially the CoreMedia Studio work environment met a range of performance
and usability requirements that continue to be of critical importance for day-today editorial work. To ensure optimum processes, ZDF operates a comprehensive
quality management system that takes into account WCM requirements from
both a technical and a design perspective. Ultimately, key issues such as usability
and availability depend to a great extent on technical factors, such as seamless
integration into internal editorial systems and databases, and also on a userfriendly editorial interface that editors use to supply each website with content.
THE SOLUTION: CoreMedia Delivers LeadingEdge Technology for the Relaunch of ZDF Portals
The re-launch of the ZDF portals
had a clear goal: to provide both
website visitors and the editorial
staff with more clearly organized
information and offerings. After a
seven-month internal conception
phase and an official tender, ZDF
awarded the contract to redesign
its Web presence to Capgemini,
a CoreMedia partner. The project
would include overhauling the
portal structures and existing
interface design, as well as creating
a new editorial interface. After an
extensive catalog of requirements
for the re-launch was completed in
collaboration with the ZDF online
editors, a competent technology
partner had to be found to implement the
new concept. Another official tender was
held and ZDF once again chose to rely on
CoreMedia’s technological expertise and
high-performance solutions.
With the CoreMedia CMS, it was possible to
meet the complex set of requirements compiled
by the ZDF online editorial team in just six
months — in time for two major media events:
the UEFA European Football Championship and
the 2012 Olympic Games. Applying an agile
development methodology, the content of the
newly implemented editor was customized to
meet the needs of the editorial team, getting
the most out of the functionality of CoreMedia
Studio. High-quality results, speed of operation,
and effective support for editorial workflows
were decisive factors for success, leading to
a high level of acceptance of the new editor:
CoreMedia Studio.
CASE STUDY: MEDIA
THE RESULT: Optimized Infrastructure for
Users and Editors
The first step in the redesign was to integrate the new digital channels ZDFneo,
ZDFkultur, and ZDFinfo into the online presence. Program highlights included
the interactive format ZDFlogin, which uses a second-screen concept to allow
interactive participation, letting users play an active role in a broadcast. The
main ZDF.de website, which is still the main entry page for the broadcaster’s
online presence, also got a makeover. With more than 200 links, the network’s
homepage used to be fairly cluttered. Today, the content on ZDF.de is organized
in groups for greater clarity. The new navigation with its touch controls is closer
to iPad functionality than to classic click-and-scroll, making it unique in terms of
user friendliness.
For the editorial staff, CoreMedia Studio is easy to use: innovative index-page
editing based on the CoreMedia CMS generates a grid on all pages that links
to the channels and can also be populated with manually edited teasers.
Shifting individual elements is straightforward, letting editors completely
customize a page with little effort. Also included in CoreMedia Studio are a
high-performance search function and a dashboard on which editors can find
all current documents that are ready for release.
To streamline workflows and ease the workload for the editorial teams, certain
elements of WCM are now automated. For example, teaser boxes can be filled
either from the channels or the Mediathek, or program data can be embedded,
without any manual steps. This upgrade is especially useful when it is too timeintensive to regularly supply new content for certain programs.
In the meantime, website users and the online editors at ZDF alike are enjoying
the benefits of the new, more clearly arranged structure of the Web offerings
and the extensive usability features — compressed in a powerful and flexible
Editor. With CoreMedia as a high-performance, scalable solution, ZDF has taken
yet another bold and innovative step into the future of WCM.
ABOUT COREMEDIA
CoreMedia is a leading provider of Web
Content Management (WCM) software
to organizations demanding engaging,
context-driven online experiences for
their customers regardless of channel
or touchpoint.
The company’s WCM suite offers unique
business value by seamlessly integrating
digital and social media assets, increasing
editorial productivity and accelerating
time to market in complex environments.
As a result, businesses can more effectively execute their online strategies to
engage users, build customer loyalty
and ultimately drive greater revenue
and profitability.
Established in 1996, CoreMedia is
headquartered in Hamburg, Germany,
with offices in San Francisco, Washington,
London and Singapore. CoreMedia’s
clients include global brands, such as
the Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC), Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC), Bertelsmann, BILD,
CLAAS, Continental, EPCOS, Deutsche
Telekom, Internet Broadcasting, JD Group,
Tchibo, Telefónica Germany and ZDF.
For more information, please visit our website: www.coremedia.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: In North America: +1 .415 .371 .0400 | In Europe: +49 .40 .32 55 87 .0
Copyright 2014. CoreMedia Corporation. All rights reserved. (0214-CS-EN-ZDF001)