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On 8 July 2025, the Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (Commission on Concentration in the Media – KEK) presented its 8th report on media concentration in Germany, entitled “Social Media, AI & Co - New threats to diversity of opinion”. The Commission was established in 1997 and is responsible, on behalf of the state media authorities, for ensuring compliance with rules on safeguarding diversity of opinion in the private television sector at national level. The report, in which it examines the development of media concentration every three years, contains...

On 4 June 2024, the Rundfunkkommission (Broadcasting Commission) of the federal states adopted proposals for a reform of the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV). The new Digitale Medien-Staatsvertrag (digital media state treaty – DMStV-E) is intended to provide a package of measures to safeguard the communication-related foundations of a free and democratic society in Germany. The first part, which focuses on the implementation and transposition of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) and the...

The federal government’s cabinet draft for the 2026 federal budget, which was adopted on 30 July 2025, provides for EUR 2.5 billion to be made available to the Minister of State for Culture and Media. Alongside other measures to strengthen the cultural sector, EUR 250 million would be channelled into the Deutsche Filmförderfonds (German Federal Film Fund — DFFF) and the German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF), almost doubling their current funding levels. Film and media promotion in Germany is organised at many different levels (federal and state) and by various funds and players....

At the beginning of June 2025, the German state media authorities completed a procedure for the second time to determine which media content should be treated as “public value” offerings on media platforms’ user interfaces, i.e. which content must be easy to find. In addition to 73 nationwide video, audio and telemedia offerings, 247 local, regional and state-wide offerings were awarded public value status. With a total of 320 offerings, this is 49 more than in the first determination procedure, which, according to the media authorities, demonstrates the high relevance of the...

On 15 May 2025, the Landgericht Köln (Cologne Regional Court – LG Köln) ruled in the second instance (case 6 S 114/23) that price increases for monthly usage fees may not be made unilaterally by a provider, but require the customer’s express consent. In the case at hand, a user had sued the streaming service provider Netflix for imposing three subscription price increases and demanded a refund of the overpayments. Price increases in December 2017, June 2019 and May 2021 meant that the price of the premium subscription originally purchased for EUR 11.99 per month had risen...