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The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German Association of Public Service Broadcasters - ARD) has published a report on programme producers for the first time. It covers the year 2014, in which the ARD says it commissioned films, documentaries and entertainment programmes worth more than EUR 707.1 million. The aim of the report is to ensure more transparency because the ARD, as a public service broadcaster, is also funded by licence fees collected from the public. Writing in the foreword, the ARD’s Chairman Lutz Marmo and its Director...

In a judgment of 14 October 2015 (Case no. 6 C 17.14), the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) decided that a bumper introducing a block of commercials and linked to a programme announcement was in breach of the rules on separating TV programmes from advertising. During a break between two early evening programmes, the television broadcaster Sat.1 had broadcast commercial bumpers that included the word “Werbung” (advertisement). The bumpers also contained announcements for the programmes to follow. The Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate...

In two judgments of 1 July 2015 the Oberlandesgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Court of Appeal - OLG) ruled on the extent of a video platform operator’s liability for the content uploaded by its users (Cases 5 U 87/12 and 5 U 175/10). It explained that a platform operator’s obligations included the prevention of all versions of a work uploaded onto its platform in violation of copyrights. In both cases at issue, private users of the platform had uploaded videos with copyright protected music without possessing exploitation rights in the titles. In one of the two proceedings, the collecting society that...

In a judgment of 7 July 2015, the Oberlandesgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Court of Appeal) decided that the “right to be forgotten” can also be asserted vis-à-vis the operator on an online archive (Case 7 U 29/12). The plaintiff sought injunctive relief against the publisher of a national daily newspaper and operator of its internet site, where, in addition to news items, older reports were made available in an online archive. The reports included the institution, progress and discontinuance of investigation proceedings brought against the plaintiff by the public prosecutor’s office and on third parties’...

At its 69th meeting in Saarbrücken on 23 June 2015, the German media authorities’ Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission on Licensing and Supervision - ZAK) discussed some fundamental questions concerning platform integrity. In particular, it emphasised that the so-called red button or HbbTV signal does not need to be transmitted by platform operators because it does not constitute part of the programme signal. The HbbTV signal is used to activate the so-called red button that viewers can press on their remote control to participate in votes or select additional content offered by the...