100,000 euros for a TV advert: GLS Bank and Prokon support KLIMA° vor acht’s campaign for a climate programme

Hamburg, 5 March 2025. GLS Gemeinsch­afts­bank eG and Prokon Regen­er­ative Ener­gien eG are each spon­soring the “KLIMA° vor acht ins Fernsehen” campaign run by KLIMA° vor acht e.V. with 50,000 euros. The non-profit organ­isa­tion has now raised a total of 130,000 euros, which is more than half of the spon­sor­ship funds it is aiming to raise. The aim of the campaign is to use spon­sor­ship funds to purchase an advert­ising slot on ARD before the Tagesschau news programme, in order to broad­cast a newly produced episode of “KLIMA° vor acht”.

The “KLIMA° vor acht” campaign was launched in December last year. Spon­sors to date include EWS Schönau, Oatly and Ohrmann GmbH. With the addi­tion of these two new main spon­sors, the initi­ative is moving closer to its goal of promoting a short, daily TV segment on climate issues before the Tagesschau news programme.

GLS Bank and Prokon: Two companies demon­strating respons­ib­ility

“The consequences of the climate crisis have long since called our economic model into ques­tion. Yet tele­vi­sion continues to show us stock market news that bears no rela­tion to the climate crisis. Let’s talk about issues that affect us all directly. Protecting the found­a­tions of our lives deserves a place in prime time,” says GLS Exec­utive Board Spokes­person Aysel Osmanoglu.

“Since its found­a­tion, Prokon eG has been committed to the energy trans­ition and the expan­sion of renew­able energy. As one of Europe’s largest energy co-oper­at­ives, we see it as our respons­ib­ility to raise public aware­ness of climate protec­tion. KLIMA° vor acht stands for inde­pendent, fact-based climate journ­alism on German tele­vi­sion – an important contri­bu­tion to motiv­ating people to take action. Through our spon­sor­ship as a ‘Climate Visionary’, we are supporting this initi­ative to make know­ledge about climate protec­tion access­ible and under­stand­able to a wide audi­ence. Educa­tion is the key to sustain­able change – for a climate-friendly future that we are shaping together,” says Henning v. Stechow, Chief Exec­utive of Prokon.

Campaign aims to encourage programme decision-makers to rethink their approach

“The support from GLS Bank and Prokon sends a strong signal from the busi­ness community in favour of better climate coverage,” says Friederike Mayer, a member of the KLIMA° vor acht board. “We expect the campaign to help bring about a change in mindset among programme decision-makers and ensure that the climate crisis is finally taken seri­ously in public-service broad­casting.”

Climate coverage in public service broad­casting remains low

According to a 2021 study by the Univer­sity of Hamburg, climate coverage on public service tele­vi­sion accounts for only around 2 per cent of program­ming. Recent data analyses by the KLIMA° vor acht asso­ci­ation show that this figure has hardly improved since then. For more than four years, the initi­ative has been campaigning for a daily, constructive TV programme on climate issues on public service broad­casters. So far, the only successes have been on commer­cial tele­vi­sion: in 2021, for example, RTL launched the ‘Klima Update’, based on an idea from KLIMA° vor acht, which reaches an audi­ence of millions twice a week during prime­time.

Full details of the campaign can be found at: klimavorachtinsfernsehen.de
Press images avail­able for down­load: klimavorachtinsfernsehen.de/pressefotos

Contact: Friederike Mayer, Tel. +49 176 20071497, presse@klimavoracht.de; Nora Schareika – Commu­nic­a­tions, GLS Bank, Tel. +49 234 5797 4409, Mobile +49 151 22118613, nora.schareika@gls.de; Svenja Jäger – Press Officer at Prokon, presse@prokon.net, Tel. 04821 6855–460