Germany

[DE] Agreement on Digital Frequency Use

IRIS 2007-2:1/16

Nicola Weißenborn

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The public broadcasters and the Landesmedienanstalten ( Land media authorities) have agreed a set of guidelines on the use of digital frequencies.

At the 2006 Regional Radiocommunication Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), it was decided that the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting in Europe should be completed by 2015 and that broadcasting frequencies should be re-organised as a result. The German Federal Government and the Länder subsequently asked the public service broadcasters and Landesmedienanstalten to prepare for the implementation of these plans at national level and to propose some guidelines for future spectrum use. A crucial point of debate was the distribution of the so-called "digital dividend" between public and private broadcasters and the related growth potential for broadcasting and telemedia services. According to the agreement, the public broadcasters will have essentially completed the digitisation of terrestrial television by 2008.

On 12 December 2006, the Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten (Conference of Land media authority directors) presented a draft framework agreement on the multi-regional trials of mobile broadcasting services based on the DVB-H standard (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld). Alongside DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting), which has been available in 11 German cities since the beginning of September 2006, DVB-H will be the second technical standard for mobile television to be tested. The final version of the agreement will be adopted after the consultation procedure ends in January 2007.