Commission to determine the concentration in the media sector

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The KEK logo

The commission to determine the concentration in the media sector ( KEK ) was founded in 1997 on the basis of the provisions of the 3rd State Treaty on Broadcasting . The KEK has the task of checking compliance with the provisions for safeguarding the diversity of opinion on nationwide private television and of making the relevant decisions. The KEK acts as a decision- making body and mediating body for all state media authorities for nationwide concentration control . The legal basis is the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (RStV).

tasks

At

  • Admission procedure for the program event

and

  • Changes in the ownership structure in television broadcasters

the KEK assesses whether a company gains dominant power of opinion by organizing programs or by changing ownership structures. Criteria for the prevailing power of opinion are the audience shares and the position of the organizer and the companies involved in the media sector. In the context of

  • Procedure for granting airtime for third parties

KEK is involved in the selection and approval of third-party organizers.

The decisions of the KEK are final and binding for the other organs of the relevant state media authorities.

To create transparency, the KEK reports continuously on the status and development of concentration in the media sector. The KEK website contains a media database that provides information on the participation of companies in the areas of nationwide television, radio, press and online. In addition, a program list of the private television stations is published, in which all programs, their organizers and their participants are included. In addition, the KEK creates a TV station database for the state media authorities, which records all private and public television stations that can be received nationwide. At least every 3 years or at the request of the federal states, the state media authorities jointly publish a KEK report on the development of concentration and on measures to ensure diversity of opinion in private broadcasting. The media concentration reports are available on the KEK website.

Audience shares

The yardstick for determining the prevailing power of opinion in national private television is essentially the audience share achieved by the organizer. The audience share of the respective programs is determined by the KEK. It is an average value. For a specified period of time (e.g. month, year), it indicates what proportion of the total daily viewing time is attributable to a certain program. All German-language programs of public broadcasting and private broadcasting nationwide are included.

Ownership structure

The ownership structure is decisive for assessing which programs can be assigned to a company. This is decisive for the total audience share achieved by a company. A program can be attributed not only to a participation under company law, but also e.g. B. also with regular delivery of parts of the program or the opportunity to have a significant influence on program design and program reference. Due to the ownership structure, organizer groups formed early on in national private television. Not only the far-reaching connections between the program organizers (horizontal interdependencies) are striking, but also the increasing integration of successive exploitation stages (e.g. production, rights trading, distribution channels) and the linking of different media markets (e.g. radio and press). Such interrelationships are to be included in the assessment of whether a company has achieved dominant power of opinion.

Members

The KEK consists of experts in broadcasting and commercial law (6 members and 2 substitute members) as well as directors of the state media authorities (6 members and 2 substitute members). The experts are appointed by mutual agreement by the minister-presidents of the federal states for a period of five years. The directors are elected by the state media authority for the term of office of the KEK. The members of the KEK are not bound by instructions.

The members of the CEC are:

Expert:

Representatives of the state media authorities:

  • Joachim Becker (Hessian State Authority for Private Broadcasting and New Media)
  • Uwe Conradt (State Media Authority Saarland)
  • Andreas Fischer (Lower Saxony State Media Authority)
  • Michael Sagurna (Saxon State Authority for Private Broadcasting and New Media)
  • Siegfried Schneider (Bavarian State Center for New Media)
  • Anja Zimmer (Media Authority Berlin-Brandenburg)
  • Cornelia Holsten (Bremische Landesmedienanstalt) (substitute member)
  • Tobias Schmid (State Institute for Media North Rhine-Westphalia) (substitute member)

Office

The logo of the media authorities

Within the joint office of the media authorities in Berlin, the media concentration department has been coordinating the work of the members of the KEK since September 2013, taking on the preparation and follow-up of the regular committee meetings and meetings with other institutions. Before that, the KEK had an office based in Potsdam.

financing

The KEK is financed by shares of the broadcasting fees payable to the state media authorities in accordance with Section 10 of the Interstate Broadcasting Agreement (Section 35 (10) sentence 3 RStV). In addition, in accordance with Section 35 (11) sentence 1 RStV, the state media authorities will charge reasonable procedural costs to those involved in the proceedings, e.g. B. the applicants for admission of a program. The KEK is obliged to act according to the principle of economy and economy.

See also

literature

  • Dieter Dörr, ensuring diversity in national television, AfP special issue 2007, 33 ff.
  • Insa Sjurts / Bernd Malzanini, Media-Relevant Related Markets, MedienWirtschaft 1/2007, 42 ff.
  • Martha Renck-Laufke, The tension between state media authorities and KEK using the example of the Springer concern, ZUM 2006, 907 ff.
  • Dietrich Westphal, Farewell to the Original - On the deformation of the KEK by the 10th Broadcasting Amendment Treaty, ZUM 2008, pp. 854–861.
  • Bernd Holznagel / Daniel Krone, How free is the KEK? - A contribution to the interpretation of § 26 II 2 RStV, MMR 2005, 666 ff.
  • Bernd Malzanini: Media Concentration in Europe (euro | topics, bpb, December 20, 2007 - Bernd Malzanini, Head of the Office of the Commission for Determining Concentration in the KEK Media Area)
  • Reinlein / Wagner, The Investigative Powers of the KEK, K&R 2008, 518 ff.
  • Dejan Perc: Extra-organizational and institutional restrictions on corporate management using the example of KEK , in: Jürgen Banzhaf, Stefan Wiedmann (eds.): Development perspectives of corporate management and its reporting, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3835005650 , pp. 137–146.
  • Hans Neft: KEK and KDLM: unorthodox organ configuration to ensure the diversity of opinion on television , in: Journal for Copyright and Media Law 43 (1999), pp. 97-104.
  • Martha Renck-Laufke: What is and what can KEK do? , in: Journal for Copyright and Media Law 44 (2000), pp. 369–375.
  • Michael Müller: Concentration control to ensure freedom of information - constitutional reasons, possibilities and limits of the concentration control of private broadcasting companies by the commission for determining the concentration in the media sector (KEK) according to § 26 RStV, Munich 2004
  • Dietrich Westphal: Federal private radio supervision in the democratic constitutional state - administrative and constitutional analysis of the KEK, Berlin 2007

Web links