The prime ministers of Germany’s regional states have agreed to make a number of changes to the national media law. At the heart of the new legislation is the increase of the public TV and radio licence fee that ARD, ZDF and nationwide radio service DeutschlandRadio receive by DM3.33 (E170) to DM 31.58 per month from January 1 2001. The fee will then remain unchanged until December 31, 2004.

It was also decided that Multimedia-PCs that are able to receive radio and television streams from the Internet will be excluded from the licence fee duty until 2004. The aim was to do away with hurdles that could have harmed Germany’s growing Internet business.

In addition, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF will no longer be allowed to carry commercial advertising on their teletext services, which will now have to be financed 100 per cent through the licence fee. The parliaments of Germany’s 16 regional states now have to approve the revised media law before it can come into force on January 1, 2001.

The association of the commercial TV and radio industry, VPRT, criticised the licence fee increase as being too high and complained that the public broadcasters are still allowed to finance in part through airing advertisements and sponsoring. It is one of VPRT’s long-term goals to limit ARD and ZDF’s financing to the licence fee. ARD’s chairman Peter Voss welcomed the revised media law as a “constructive compromise” which grants ARD planning security for the next four years, adding that it was a positive decision not to cut down the amount of advertising and sponsoring the public broadcasters are allowed to carry.