ADAC -TV Keeps 16 Million Members Informed

Publication date: 20 February 2008

When a club has more members than the population of many small countries, technology plays an essential role in keeping them all well-informed. ADAC has launched its own online TV channel to do just that.

ADAC, the German automobile association, has launched a web TV site to help keep its 16.1 million members informed.

The site, which can be found at www. adac.de/tv, features a range of content, from news and assistance to insurance and motor sport. Arranged under five tabs, ADAC-TV also offers information on tests and technical services.

Visitors will find crash test footage, consumer test results, weekly motoring news and the traffic jam forecast for the upcoming weekend. ADAC also features its products and services, such as motor insurance, or the work of its air rescue and roadside assistance services. There are documentaries featuring the special charm of historic car touring in select regions, some up to an hour long, as well as historic black-and-white footage from the 1950s and 60s.

Users mostly look for content with practical value, such as the ADAC news, the traffic jam forecast or test results. The detailed explanations of, say, a test engineer, help viewers understand often complex matters. For instance, better than the photos of the current tests in Motorwelt, ADAC's member magazine, the video footage available on ADAC-TV can convey the hard testing conditions under which the club evaluates winter tyres.

The channel runs a number of regular features. The ADAC-TV traffic jam forecast for the major motorways for the upcoming weekend is scheduled on Mondays. Tuesdays are dedicated to the motoring news produced at ADAC's own TV studio. Other regular features include consumer test results, motor sport reports and historic car touring.

The choice items of mobility TV benefit from the enlarged-screen feature ensuring more detail. A convenient and fast mail function enables viewers to send interesting items to friends on the Internet.

Club members will find information on ADAC-TV's current programme in their ADACmotorwelt magazine, the bi-weekly newsletter going to about 500,000 subscribers and on the ADAC website. Partner sites such as www.sevenload.de also carry links to ADAC-TV.

The ADAC Internet TV channel is produced in-house. Visual quality in both available formats – regular and enlarged – is very high. The minimum system requirements for the users' PC are standard to allow every user access to the video and mobilityrelated news. Easy-to-use technology and an intuitive interface help the user find information faster. Separate tabs are dedicated to the latest news and the most frequently viewed items.

ADAC-TV launched with live coverage of the January 2007 "Yellow Angel awards". Since then, some two million video clips have been clicked. One of the strongest items was the crash test footage of the Shenyang Brilliance, a saloon made in China. Month after month, the current seasonal tyre tests, the traffic forecasts and the ADAC news from the ADAC TV studio continue to be the most viewed features.