Taste splits German TV auds

Easterners like 'sentimental' programming more than West Germans, spokeswoman says

ABC in talks to pick up episodes of Fox's 'Pizza'

WBTV getting 'Kelly' on rebound from Col

Rosegarten tapped as CBS comic scout

Fox's 'Harriet' ranks 3rd in Sunday debut

Comedy fest plans 'Cheers' reunion

BERLIN -- The Berlin Wall may have collapsed more than seven years ago, but the East-West divide is still measurable in the TV tastes and habits of the German public.

"Viewers in the East like sentimental, family-oriented shows more than Westerners," notes Kristina Fassler, spokeswoman for commercial web SAT1. Ratings for SAT1's schmaltzy nurse series "Stefanie: Angel on Duty" are 3 percentage points higher and Alpine medical drama "The Call of the Mountain" attracts 6% more viewers in the East.

Commercial stations like RTL have benefited considerably from German reunification. By contrast, pubcasters ARD and ZDF have higher overall shares in the West.

Many Eastern households were able to receive the Western pubcasters via antenna in the years preceding the fall of the Wall, but they "didn't develop the same loyalty to the pubcasters as the Westerners," observes ARD rep Frank-Thomas Suppe.