Pluralism, Politics and the Marketplace: The Regulation of German Broadcasting

Since the mid-1980s, broadcasting in the Federal Republic of Germany has been extensively reregulated. The traditional duopoly of the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF has been challenged by new private networks in both radio and television. In two historic judgements handed down in 1986 and 1987, the Federal Constitutional Court set out terms for a new dual order of private and public broadcasting. But how were the guidelines of the court interpreted in practice? Pluralism, Politics and the Marketplacetraces the economic and political influences which shaped the policies of the West German telecommunications authority, theDeutscher Bundespost, in expanding the broadcasting infrastructure. The analyze the political background to the 1987 Inter-Land Treaty which created a new dual order in broadcasting and the economic rationale of the Federal Cartel Office, theBundeskartellamt, in regulating competition between public and privatebroadcasters. Finally, the authors examine the influence of the European Community on German broadcasting policy, including the decisions of the Competition Directorate of the EC Commission, the EC Directive on Transfrontier Television Broadcasting of October 1989, and the proposals of the European Commission on Audiovisual Policy.