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In a decision of 26 February 1997, the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht - BVerfG) declared the obligation of private broadcasters to keep records of their broadcasts for the purpose of broadcasting supervision and under specific conditions to submit such records to the regional media authority (Landesmedienanstalt) as the supervisory body compatible with the guarantee of the freedom of broadcasting contained in Article 5, paragraph 1(2) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz - GG). The decision by the BVerfG was in response to an appeal on a point of constitutionality brought by a...

As the leading cable network operator in Germany, Deutsche Telekom AG has the largest cable network in Europe at its disposal. Extensions to the network mean that there are hyperband channels free which have not been in use for years. For economic reasons, the company prefers to allocate the new cable space to digital TV operators, as relatively high profits are expected in this field. At present DeutscheTelekom AG receives only connection charges from viewers and fees from broadcasting companies for carrying programmes which are below the profit level of digital television. The company's cable...

The guideline on broadcasting time for third parties, adopted in January by the Conference of Directors of Regional Media Authorities, amplifies the provisions of paragraph 31 of the National Broadcasting Agreement (Article 1 of the Agreement on Broadcasting between the Federal States in United Germany), as modified by the third Agreement between the Federal States to amend the Agreements on Broadcasting of 26.08. -11.09.1996. The guideline, which is based on Article 33, sentence 1, of the Agreement, is above all intended to clarify the interpretation of Article 31 of the Agreement, which seeks...

The Free State of Bavaria has submitted a Bill on compensation for crime victims to the Federal Council. The Bill not only aims at improving the procedural position of victims of acts of violence, but also at ensuring that the perpetrators can derive no immoral profits from commercial exploitation of their actions in the media. Fees paid for film treatments or talkshow appearances are now to go, on certain conditions, to the victims. So far, such assets have not usually been available to meet the legitimate civil law claims of victims, although publicising the crime often interferes with their...

The Federal High Court ( Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) has found that broadcasting to the public by direct satellite transmission is not a new method of use in the sense of Section 31 IV of the Copyright Act ( Urhebergesetz - UrhG), compared with the usual terrestrial transmission. The complainant, a production company, concluded three broadly similar contracts in the years 1975 to 1977 with the defendant, a broadcasting company, involving the joint production of a television broadcast which was afterwards to be broadcast terrestrially. In 1992 the defendant broadcast the entire series of programmes...