Search results : 1359

In mid-April the Federal Cartel Office ( Bundeskartellamt ) authorised the acquisition by the Kirch group of shares in the pay-TV provider Premiere previously owned by Bertelsmann (CLT/UFA) and Canal+. As a result, when this merger is complete, almost all of the sharesCLT/UFA has retained 5 % - will be owned by the company whose digital subscription channel DF1 is the only other competitor on the German market. This change in ownership is to be the last major development in the German pay-TV market for the time being. Most previous initiatives proposed by the former shareholders to reorganise...

In a judgement delivered on 1 April 1999, the Higher Administrative Court ( Oberverwaltungsgericht OVG ) in Berlin dismissed the appeal of the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority against the decision of the Berlin Administrative Court ( Verwaltungsgericht VG ) of 17 December 1998. In its decision, the VG Berlin had held the practice followed by the television broadcaster n-tv, using a crawling display simultaneously with the normal picture for advertising purposes, to be admissible (see IRIS 1999-2:6). In its judgement, the OVG agreed with the court of first instance that the crawling text, as...

In two judgements delivered on 15 April 1999, the Berlin Administrative Court ( Verwaltungsgericht - VG ) upheld earlier rulings made in the granting of provisional legal protection. The first case (file no. VG 27 A 289.98) concerned whether the feature film " Feuer, Eis und Dynamit " should be indicated as being an extended advertising programme (see IRIS 1999-1:6). The applicant broadcaster had appealed against the decision of the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority ( MABB ) under which the film could only be broadcast if it were indicated as being an extended advertising programme. In the Court's...

In a decision of 27 April 1999, the Baden-Württemberg Higher Administrative Court ( VerwaltungsgerichtshofVGH ) dismissed an appeal by a private broadcaster against the decision by the Stuttgart Administrative Court ( Verwaltungsgericht ) of 28 October 1998, file no.1 K 4787/98. The private broadcaster hoped, by applying for a temporary order, to oblige the supervisory authority, the Land of Baden-Württemberg, to prohibit the public broadcasting corporation Südwestrundfunk (SWR) from broadcasting the programme " SWR 3 Metro ". SWR 3 Metro was broadcast on two Stuttgart frequencies at particular...

Replying to an application for a temporary order, the Koblenz Appeal Court ( Oberlandesgericht - OLG ) decided on 27 October 1998 that in future no telephone directories may be sold in CD-ROM format without the telephone subscribers' prior permission. The applicant, a computer software manufacturer, who also produced a CD-ROM telephone directory with which subscribers could be identified by means of their telephone number, neighbourhood searches could be carried out and business numbers found, had been prohibited from selling these CD-ROMs by means of an injunction. As a result of this, she had...