Licht ins Dunkel

Although the sum of money raised is increasing from year to year, these telethons are facing increasing criticism from viewers complaining about the whole-day blocking of one of the country's most important nationwide public television channels which usually airs highly rated programmes about culture, society, politics and business.

Thus, viewers who are getting their television signals solely over the air and do not have access to satellite reception or cable-TV usually get 6 to 10 different channels of which at least three broadcast Licht ins Dunkel, parts of it, or regional telethons of Licht ins Dunkel on December 24, which is another source of annoyance for this group of viewers.

Some people even complain about Licht ins Dunkel since they do not wish to be confronted with the lives and problems of disabled persons on Christmas Eve.

Every year, some businesses consider the show as another advertising opportunity and make very high donations just in order to be mentioned one more time on television.

In 2008, several leading politicians appeared on the show which caused another wave of criticism - many viewers had the opinion that politicians should rather optimize the welfare state to provide better help for people for whom the public welfare services are not sufficient instead of pledging for donations.