Dual broadcast system

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The dual broadcasting system means the simultaneous existence of private and public broadcasting (not to be confused with state broadcasting ).

development

After public service broadcasting had held a monopoly position for around three decades , the situation in the European broadcasting landscape changed completely in the early 1980s with the introduction of private television and the emergence of the dual broadcasting system. Progress in the field of cable and satellite technology also created the conditions for new transmission possibilities.

The design of broadcasting has been different since then. Here is an overview of the three main systems:

Public service model
This model is only identified by public broadcasters. Financing takes place through taxes or fees. The British system ( BBC ) is one of the first and best known to evolve from this model.
Commercial model
Private and profit-oriented providers dominate the market here. Financing takes place exclusively through advertising or direct services provided by the viewer ( pay TV, etc.). The American radio system can be cited here as an example.
Dual broadcast
In Europe, today's broadcasting systems have developed from a public service model to a dual system in almost all countries.

While after the Second World War there was usually only one broadcaster per country, the introduction of the dual broadcasting system meant that more and more private program providers entered the markets. As early as 1954, privately organized broadcasters in Great Britain competed for viewer / listener and advertising income for the first time. Great Britain can therefore also be described as a pioneer here.

year country
1954 Great Britain
1972/1974 Italy
1984 Germany
1985 France
1987 Belgium ( French Community )
1988 Denmark
1989 Belgium ( Flemish Community ), Greece , Netherlands , Spain
1990 Ireland
1991 Luxembourg
1992 Portugal , Sweden
1985/1993 Finland
1995/1997/2001 Austria

The competitive situation on the broadcasting market has intensified significantly in recent years - especially in German-speaking countries. This development is primarily due to the rapidly increasing range of programs in satellite and cable households, which has been driven forward by rapidly advancing digitization .

Public broadcasting versus private broadcasting

The most important difference between the two broadcasting systems is in terms of the form of organization and the organizational purpose. Here, the focus of private broadcasting is on making profits for private investors. A public service broadcaster has to fulfill a public mandate that is performed under public control. It is not allowed to generate profits in the private sector. The broadcasters, however, have the option of setting up private companies or participating in such.

Germany

Relationship between public service and private broadcasting

The dual broadcasting system has existed in Germany since 1984. With the 3rd broadcasting judgment , the so-called FRAG judgment, the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) paved the way for private broadcasting on June 16, 1981 by declaring it to be fundamentally permissible. However, it was not until the 4th broadcasting judgment from 1986 that the dual broadcasting system was established: In the opinion of the BVerfG, private broadcasting alone can not fulfill the public communication task that arises from broadcasting freedom in Art. 5 GG , because its advertising financing justifies the Risk of a program designed only according to popularity criteria. Accordingly, it is the public broadcasters who have to perform the public task of providing the basic service through content standards, general reception and ensuring diversity of opinion. Private broadcasting is therefore permitted alongside the public broadcasters as long as the latter ensure the basic service.

The term dual broadcasting system describes this mutual dependency, because the functionality of public broadcasting is a prerequisite for the admissibility of private broadcasting according to the BVerfG. If there was a risk that the private broadcasters would completely displace the public broadcasters, this would make private broadcasting unconstitutional. A “fruitful coexistence” is in the interests of all those involved and shapes the German broadcasting landscape.

The basis of private broadcasting are the state media laws that were enacted as a result of the 3rd broadcasting judgment and that are still in use today within the dual broadcasting system.

Before 1984 there were programs in Germany with ARD , ZDF and the third parties - apart from the radio stations of the allied armed forces such as British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) and American Forces Network (AFN), the foreign services operated from Germany such as Voice of America (VoA ), Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and the private broadcaster Europe 1 , which owes its existence to the special statute of the Saarland in the 1950s and which broadcasts a French-language, commercial program from Felsberg-Berus - only public radio stations. Only in the vicinity of the border could some commercial programs broadcast especially for the German audience from abroad, such as Radio Luxemburg , be received. Only the expansion of the cable networks and a change of policy with Helmut Kohl in 1982 made the introduction of the dual broadcasting system possible after the 3rd and 4th broadcasting judgments .

The interstate broadcasting treaty regulates the basic service mandate of the public broadcasters as well as their financing from broadcasting fees and the right to exist for commercial broadcasters financed by advertising.

Non-commercial broadcasting as the "third pillar"

When private television started broadcasting on January 1, 1984, Germany's first open channel went on air as the open-access "Jedermannsrundfunk" (in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ), which is why there is talk of a three-way broadcasting system. Since the function and tasks of non-commercial broadcasting are regularly differentiated from those of public and private program providers, citizen media are repeatedly classified as a reserve of diversity, as broadcasting of the third kind or as the “third pillar” of the German broadcasting system.

The media lawyer Martin Stock, more of a friend of the citizen media, restricts that the third pillar does not indicate anything static-pillar-like. It is of a different kind than the other two, likewise unequal pillars, because it works more as a civic principle and less of a finished, competing institution. However, it should also be remembered that the public perception of such programs is very limited.

Delimitations

Public law

Private

Noncommercial

  • Broadcasters, as far as free of advertising
  • Channels of the state media authorities
  • licensed non-commercial providers

Commercially

  • licensed commercial providers
  • Broadcasting companies, if they are advertising

Austria

In Austria , a real dual broadcasting system was only introduced in 2001 with the revision of the broadcasting laws. A regulatory authority (RTR-GmbH) was set up, improvements were made for private radio operators and a private television law was passed. The ORF law was also amended in order to align the ORF with the new market conditions with regard to advertising regulations and program mandates.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Note: First radio organized under public law in 1922.
  2. ↑ a b RTR, Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH: The dual broadcasting regulations in Europe. Community legal framework and current approaches to the dual system in selected member states, series of publications by Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH (2004) ( Memento from June 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Schmitt-Beck, Rüdiger: Mediensysteme, Medienpolitik und Demokratie - 5th Broadcasting in the Federal Republic of Germany. Lecture given at the Institute for Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen (Duisburg Campus), SS 2004@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / politik.uni-duisburg-essen.de
  4. ^ [1] RTR, Broadcasting and Telecom Regulierungs-GmbH
  5. ^ [2] ORF law amendment, BGBl. I No. 83/2001