Germany

[DE] No Fee for Electronic Programme Guide

IRIS 2008-4:1/17

Nicola Lamprecht-Weißenborn

Cologne Media Law Research Centre

According to press reports, the collective society Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Urheber- und Leistungsschutzrechte von Medienunternehmen mbH (VG Media) and Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e. V. (ZVEI), an association that represents the electrical engineering and electronics industries, have been able to agree on a common position in the dispute concerning royalties on set-top boxes.

On 14 August 2007, VG Media published a scale of fees for the use of images and text employed for announcing and advertising television programmes in electronic programme guides (EPGs) and stated its intention to implement this from 1 January 2008. The fees include an amount in respect of royalties for device manufacturers that operate an EPG. The amount is a one-off charge of EUR 3 per device sold.

There was considerable opposition to the fee requirement, especially on the part of the industry, and it was not clear whether all device manufacturers would be obliged to pay the fee in the future.

The associations have now agreed that only those manufacturers that are themselves “operators” of an EPG have to pay a fee. However, ZVEI points out that this does not apply to most manufacturers, who either use EPG systems based on the SI (service information) data broadcast together with the video signal, or EPGs that they have purchased.