Cologne is always worth a visit. The host city of the Great TV Festival has a lot to offer to its guests. With more than one million inhabitants the city of Cologne is the largest municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia, located in the centre of the Rhein-Ruhr metropolitan area. Founded in 38 B.C. Cologne is one of the oldest cities in Germany and has developed a very rich cultural heritage making it a very attractive place to live, work and to visit. The city on the Rhine is well known for being multicultural, open-minded and tolerant. It is the major cultural centre of the Rhineland with a vivid arts scene, famous cultural celebrations such as the Cologne Carnival and with a historically shaped and distinctly beautiful cityscape.

A European Media Hotspot

Throughout the past decades Cologne has developed from the German broadcasting centre to a vibrant European media hotspot with a constantly growing media industry and prestigious media universities. Cologne has become home to numerous media companies covering all major branches ranging from video games to telecommunications, IT and New Media.

Its traditional TV and film industry, however, certainly played the biggest part to establish Cologne’s status as an international media metropolis. Six major German TV-stations are located along the Rhine River. Such as the RTL group, Europe’s No.1 TV broadcasting group, as well as the WDR, continental Europe’s biggest public broadcasting network. In addition to that, more than one hundred film- and TV studios as well as numerous production companies producing approximately one third of all German TV programs are located in Cologne. Altogether more than 15.000 people work in this sector making Cologne the German film and television capital. The successful media industry has a major influence on the people and their attitude towards Cologne and their life. Hardly a day goes by without outdoor shootings in one of Cologne’s 85 boroughs. The TV productions, together with the countless radio stations, advertising agencies, publishers and music labels, all add to the impressive diversity of this historical city.

Considering these ideal circumstances it is almost a logical consequence to host one of Germany’s biggest TV festivals in Cologne. The city not only provides the necessary media infrastructure but also a very broad, competent and curious audience. Furthermore, the festival complements other prestigious German and international media events such as the Medienforum.NRW, the Cologne Conference, DMEXCO, the Grimme Online Award, the German Film Awards, LitCologne or Europe’s largest games fair, the Gamescom.

The Great TV Festival is looking forward to welcome you and to introduce you to a part of Cologne’s rich media culture and to celebrate high class TV productions together. See you in March 2012!