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In 1999, Bavaria Film GmbH (Bavaria) and the Bayerische Landesanstalt für Aufbaufinanzierung (Bavarian authority for construction finance - LfA) founded Bayerische Filmhallen GmbH (BFH) for the purpose of building a new film studio. The LfA held 70% of the shares and Bavaria 30%. Building the film studio cost EUR 6.9 million, which was entirely financed out of public funds provided by the LfA. The European Commission assumed that the LfA's holding in BFH and the outright grant provided for the building work constituted state aid within the meaning of Art. 87(1) of the EC Treaty. It concluded that,...

The law on financial support for the German cinematographic industry, promulgated in 1979 and amended regularly since then, lays down the ways in which German film producers may be subsidised. In October 1992, the European Commission authorised this scheme for a period of five years. In 1997 Germany asked the Commission to extend its authorisation, which was allowed for a further period of five years (see IRIS 1999-5: 4). Germany re-applied to the Commission in 2003 for authorisation to amend and continue the scheme of subsidies. The Commission authorised the granting of subsidies for a further...

Following the decision by the lower house of the German parliament (Bundestag) on 3 July 2003 to accept the compromise proposal worked out by its mediation committee on the Gesetz zur Regulierung des Urheberrechts in der Informationsgesellschaft (Law Regulating Copyright in the Information Society), the upper house (Bundesrat) added its consent to the proposal on 11 July 2003. The law was officially published on 12 September, and substantially entered into force on 13 September. The two houses have thus agreed that, with respect to the controversial privileging of private copies in accordance...

The Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten (Directors' Conference of the regional regulatory authorities, DLM), meeting on 17-18 September 2003, has emphasized the necessity of a coordinated introduction of DVB-T and digital radio. The Landesmedienanstalten view DVB-T as providing an opportunity to ensure pluralism on the terrestrial platform as well, if a range of regional programmes is offered in addition to nation-wide ones. They welcome the intention to follow up the introduction of DVB-T in the Berlin-Brandenburg region (see IRIS 2002-4: 6) with its introduction in the state of North...

The Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (Media Concentration Commission, KEK) is an institution established on the basis of Art. 35 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (German Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement, RfStV). It assists the Landesmedienanstalten (regional regulatory authorities) in fulfilling their responsibilities in relation to ensuring pluralism in private broadcasting. It has the task of making a final judgment on issues associated with ensuring pluralism in connection with the nation-wide broadcasting of television programmes (Art. 36 [(1.)] RfStV). On 9 September...