Death channel 'will be no passing fad'

A round-the-clock television channel devoted exclusively to ageing, death and dying will be launched in Germany this autumn.

Eos TV, which takes its name from the Greek goddess of the dawn, will feature documentaries about graveyards, televised obituaries, tips on finding a decent retirement home and even how to install in-house stair lifts.

The €10 million (£7 million) project was conceived by Wolf Tilmann Schneider, 51, a former television producer who has joined forces with Germany's funeral association to launch the 24-hour, seven days a week, death-and-dying channel on cable television and the internet.

The channel aims to capitalise on the changing demographics in a country that has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Last year there were almost 150,000 more deaths than births, and an estimated 2.1 million elderly people were receiving professional care. "There are millions of people confronting the issues of ageing and death," Mr Schneider said.