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On 4 September 2002, public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF announced that they had reached an agreement with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten (Association of New German Film Producers), under which the rights to publicly funded co-productions would, in future, revert back to the producers after five rather than seven years. ARD and ZDF have therefore met the request of German film producers, who had originally demanded that the period be limited to three years. German production companies had complained that they would not benefit sufficiently from the growth potential...

At its meeting on 16 September 2002, the general assembly of the Landeszentrale für private Rundfunkveranstalter (Regional Authority for Private Broadcasters - LPR) of Rheinland-Pfalz issued an official complaint about the TV broadcaster SAT.1. The complaint concerned a commercial for alcoholic drinks, broadcast in summer 2001. SAT.1 SatellitenFernsehen GmbH broadcasts in Switzerland where, thanks to the increasing freedom granted by the LPR, it is able to broadcast special advertising windows. The LPR's permission is conditional on the Swiss advertising windows being subject to Swiss law. According...

In a judgment of 19 September 2002, the Bayerisches Verwaltungsgericht München (Bavarian Administrative Court, Munich - VG München) ruled on the admissibility of pornographic television broadcasts. It referred to the rules of interpretation laid down in the judgment issued by the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) on 20 February 2002 (see IRIS 2002-3: 7), which established an important principle. The case concerned the lawfulness of a ban imposed by the relevant supervisory authority, the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian Office for New Media - BLM),...

Youth protection reforms in Germany (see IRIS 2002-6: 13) are progressing. On 21 June 2002, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) followed the Bundestag (lower house) in approving the new Jugendschutzgesetz (Youth Protection Act). The Act will enter into force together with the Staatsvertrag über den Schutz der Menschenwürde und den Jugendschutz in Rundfunk und Telemedien - Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (InterState Agreement on the protection of human dignity and minors in broadcasting and telemedia - JMStV), for which the Länder are responsible. One of the aims of these reforms is to create...

On 22 July, the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartels Office) announced that, from a competition point of view, there was no reason to prevent co-operation between Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG) and housing companies in connection with the development of the level 4 cable network (connecting the boundary of the individual house to a connection point inside the house). According to the co-operation model, Kabel Deutschland GmbH (KDG), a subsidiary of DTAG, will take responsibility for upgrading the cable networks on behalf of housing companies. Although the housing industry will continue to provide cable...