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Media Landscape - Germany

INTRODUCTION

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Germany is the country in the “heart of Europe”, located very much in the centre of the continent. In terms of population and economic strength it is the largest state West of Russia on the continent. About 82.5 million people live (2005) in Germany in 33 million households of which 98 per cent have at least one TV-set. About 10 per cent of the population are foreign or have roots outside of Germany. The language is German and together with Austria and the German speaking part of Switzerland about 100 million people make up a German language space, constituting a rather large market.\

Germany looks back at a long history of mass media. Some of the first newspapers started here roughly 400 years ago. During the years of the Nazis the mass media had become a tool of the dictatorship. In 1945 the media experienced an “hour zero” and started nearly completely anew. The postwar media system was based on the principle of press freedom as stipulated in the constitution of 1949. Until 1990 Germany was a divided country.

The media system of the former GDR was highly centralized and worked under the control of the Communist Party. It disappeared during the process of unification, but patterns of media usage still differ between East and West. Today the major media production centres are located in the “old” West, newspapers of the former GDR are usually controlled by Western companies.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

The German press is characterised by a large number of titles. In 2005 the number of ‘independent editorial units’ (meaning full publishing entities that produce all parts of a newspaper) for daily newspapers in Germany was 138 and the number of newspapers 359. If local editions of all papers are included, there are 1,538 different newspapers. Since the early 1990s, the number and circulation of newspapers in Germany have shown signs of decline. The penetration of daily newspapers has fallen from 79.1 per cent to 74.8 per cent in 2005.

The local and regional newspaper market is strong and important in Germany. In 2005, total newspaper circulation stood at 21.66 million, most of which is subscription press as opposed to boulevard press. The tabloid press in Germany is often referred to as ‘boulevard press’. 95 per cent of the subscription press claims to be local, which is a circulation of 15.15 million. There is only a small number of national newspapers; BILD, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Welt, Frankfurter Rundschau(FR), Tageszeitung (taz). They claim to be independent and ‘above parties’, but most cover a liberal and conservative spectrum. In terms of circulation figures, the national newspapers account for 1.65 million. Another 4.86 million papers are sold on the street. The top-selling German tabloid paper is BILD Zeitung, with a circulation of 3.6 million.

The German magazine sector is extremely buoyant with some 873 general magazines (circulation ca. 123.4 million copies) and 1,081 specialised periodicals (ca. 15.1 million) currently on the market. A weekly news magazine, modelled after the American Time Magazine and for long time with a virtual monopoly in its market is Der Spiegel (ca. 1.04 million). With its investigative style of journalism, it represents the most influential political publication in Germany.

The press is characterized by a dependency on advertising income and a high degree of economic concentration. The German market for daily newspapers is dominated by a small number of publishers. The largest market share is controlled by the Axel Springer Group with around 22.4 per cent of the market (BILD, Welt, Hamburger Abendblatt, Berliner Morgenpost, etc.) The second position is taken by the WAZ Group (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung etc.), which is more a regional publisher with nearly 6.0 per cent of the market. The third place is taken by Verlagsgruppe Stuttgarter Zeitung (5 per cent) and DuMont Schauberg in Cologne (4 per cent). The Ippen Gruppe takes the fifth place with 3.9 per cent. The 10 largest publishers of dailies together control 56.1 per cent of the market.

Another type of publication, which became popular after 1945, is the weekly newspaper. It presents less actual news and more analysis and background information. The most successful and important is Die Zeit (ca. 475,000), a liberal and independent paper.


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

Germany has a ’dual system’ of both public and commercial broadcasting. In public broadcasting the Länder (states) have a strong role. The German Federal Constitution stipulates that the sole responsibility for broadcasting rests with the Länder of the Federal Republic as part of their ‘cultural sovereignty’. Because of this, the public service broadcasters are a creation of the Länder. Exceptions based on federal legislation or agreements are only Deutsche Welle (DW), a radio service designed to provide information to foreign countries,and the Cologne- and Berlin-based Deutschlandradio (DLF/DLR) which is a legacy institution from when Germany was divided. The organisational and legal structure of all other broadcasting corporations is defined in Länder laws and, if more than one state is involved, in agreements between several or all Länder (notably nation-wide public TV provider ZDF).

The traditional public service broadcaster is set up as an independent and non-commercial organisation, financed primarily by licence fees. The public service broadcasting organisation (Anstalt) in Germany resembles to some extent the BBC system. The typical Anstalt provides a region, usually a Land, with public service radio and television. NDR is the joint corporation for the Northern Länder (Schleswig Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). All regional corporations together founded the ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands) and contribute according to their size to the nation-wide TV channel “Das Erste”. In addition they independently organise a regional programme each that offers regional news and more culturally and educationally oriented programming.

The Second German Television ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) is based on an agreement of all Länder (ZDF-Staatsvertrag) and is located in Mainz. Supervisory councils are important in both the public and private sector. With the advent of cable and satellite, all Länder drafted media laws in the 1980s. These laws specifically regulate the electronic media outside the conventional public corporations, mainly by handing out commercial radio and TV licences and deciding what programmes may be fed into cable systems. For this purpose new supervisory bodies (Landesmedienanstalten) were created, each with a council, resembling those of the public broadcasters. All broadcasting corporations are governed by an independent Broadcasting Council (Rundfunkrat), whose representatives are supposed to reflect the ”socially relevant groups” of society, according to a Federal Constitutional Court's ruling.

Today German commercial television is controlled by two media groups calling themselves ‘Senderfamilien’ (broadcaster families). One, formerly owned by Leo Kirch, is called ProSiebenSAT.1Media AG and consists of Sat 1, Pro 7, N24, Kabel 1 and 9live. The other, called RTL Group, is headed by Bertelsmann subsidiary RTL Group S.A., including RTL, RTL II, Super RTL, VOX, n-tv, RTL Shop and Traumpartner TV. Many more programmes were offered in 2006, some of them independently-owned special-interest channels, while others are subsidiaries of international conglomerates such as Viacom, Disney, or NBC Universal.. In large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg etc. regional commercial TV has been established. Germany has an above-average percentage of cable households; 53 per cent of 33 million households.

There is an ongoing digitization of the terrestrial TV. Both ARD and ZDF are active in digital television and both offer a whole range of freely accessible digital channels. Radio in Germany is a very scattered market. According to the different broadcasting laws of the Länder, which stipulate plurality and diversity as a common norm, some Länder prefer a model according to which a variety of different commercial radio stations should cater for plurality (external plurality) while others prescribe the representation of different stakeholders within a limited number of radio stations (internal plurality) in order to guarantee a diverse supply.

The formerly public German Telecom (Deutsche Telekom AG) is now a privatised company, though the state still owns 34% of the shares. It is supervised by a body for the regulation of telecommunication (Bundesnetzagentur).


3. DIGITAL SERVICES

The German landscape of digital services is characterised by an active governmental policy of developing infrastructures for digital services over the air. However, innovative services and programs are rare and use of digital receivers is still disappointingly low.

Public broadcasters play an active role in developing digital services and offer six specialized free digital programmes, based on their huge programme library and time shifting. Berlin was the first place worldwide, where after the introduction of digital tv all analogue terrestrial tv was switched off.


4. ONLINE MEDIA

In 2005 about 57 per cent of all Germans were using online services. The most successful websites (in terms of page impressions) were provided by T-Online (of Deutsche Telekom) and by AOL.

A predominance of news online media is generated by the traditional media.


5. NEWS AGENCIES

Eight agencies are one the market, which have certain relevance. The dominating, internationally active agency is dpa (Deutsche Presseagentur, http://www.dpa.de). As nearly all newspapers are subscribers of dpa, it can be regarded as the primary source, whereas the other news agencies are complementary sources.

The US-American AP (Associated Press, http://www.ap-online.de), the German Reuters (rtr, http://www.reuters.de), which is a complete subsidiary company of the British Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP, http://www.afp.de) are ranking on the second, third and fourth place in the German market.


6. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

The journalists’ and employers’ organisations have a clear structure. On the journalists side there are two major organisations. The German Journalists Association (Deutscher Journalisten Verband, DJV), calling itself a ‘trade union’ but being in fact a professional organisation. The other one is the German Journalists Union (Deutsche Journalisten Union, DJU), part of Verdi, a service workers’ and clerks trade union, that is in turn a member of the German Trade Federation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB).

On the employers’ side, the owners of the daily press are organised in the Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger (BDZV) and the magazine press is represented by the Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger (VDZ).The commercial radio and television industry co-operates in the Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telekommunikation (VPRT).

There is not a strong tradition of media related NGO’s. Media issues are dealt with within the political foundations of the parties. Media research is hosted by a vast variety of institutions, e.g. university based institutes, media research divisions of both public and commercial broadcasters, independent research institutes such as GfK and Nielsen Media Research


7. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

Media freedom and freedom of expression are guaranteed in Germany within the Constitution (Grundgesetz, Art.5). Due to the strong federalism of Germany there is a variety of actors on different levels. The central actors in the German audiovisual media policy are the political parties, especially the Länder organisations of the two large parties, the conservative CDU and the social democratic SPD which control much of the public broadcasting sector.

After years of strong polarisation from the 1950s to the 1970s, media policy is now again based on a broad consensus between the Länder. In an agreement between all Länder, the basics of a ‘dual system’ of broadcasting have been put in place. It includes regulation for media concentration, stating that one company cannot control more than 30 per cent of all TV ratings. The high degree of media concentration, especially the two ‘Senderfamilien’, is causing concern.

The update of the Länder agreement, the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag, includes the provisions of the EU television directive, especially the provision stating that important events, such as the Olympic Games, should be broadcast for free.

In recent times, debates about the future of German public service broadcasting are more and more influenced by decisions and challenges of the EU. State subsidies do exist neither within the print sector nor in the electronic media, although special aids as a reduced valued added tax rate and reduced prices for distributing print products via mail serve as a state generated support for the press.


8. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

The German Press Council (Deutscher Presserat) established in 1956, consists of an equal number of representatives from the journalists’ organisations and the publishers’ organisations (20 in total). Members of the general public may appeal direct to the Council. If the Council supports the complaint, the respective newspaper is expected to publish the Council’s ruling. The decisions are taken on the base of a Press Codex which is regularly renewed according to the recent journalism developments. The effect of this self-regulation is limited, especially in relation to the practices of the ‘boulevard’ press.

The German Advertisement Council (Deutscher Werberat) is a similar organization, consisting of approximately 10 to 12 representatives from the advertising industry, the media and the advertisement agencies. They publish their decisions on complaints in a handbook. Complaints against the public service broadcasting may be brought to the members of the Broadcast Councils. In the commercial broadcasting media all television companies are obliged to employ a Commissioner for Youth Protection (Jugendschutzbeauftragter) that reports only to the company.

Some media, especially newspapers, have special media sections, which contribute to more transparency for the audiences, but which are not strong in media criticism. Journalists’ organisations as Netzwerk Recherche (Network for investigative journalism) are trying to improve quality of journalism.


9. RECENT MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS

One of the most important events in German media developments was the announcement of the sale of ProSiebenSat.1 to Springer, but this merger was prohibited by both media regulation and the anti-trust authorities. Subsequently, the company was purchased by international capital investors KKR and Permira.

Another important announcement was made by leading media actors Astra (for satellites), RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 that they intended to introduce general encryption of digital programs by 2007. This would have forced all viewers to invest in a digital decoder and buy a smartcard (for a few Euros so far) and would have allowed for additional programming, pay-tv and new interactive features. Yet, this strategy has met with strong objections from the anti-trust authority as well.


10. PRIME SOURCES FOR DETAILED INFORMATION

  • Altendorfer, Otto: Das Mediensystem der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. 2 Vol. Wiesbaden: VS 2001/2004.
  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Landesmedienanstalten (ALM): Privater Rundfunk in Deutschland. Berlin: vistas, published annually.
  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands (ARD): ARD-Jahrbuch. Hamburg: Hans-Bredow-Institut, published annually.
  • Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger (BDZV): Jahrbuch Zeitungen. Berlin: ZV, published annually.
  • Dreier, Hardy: Das Mediensystem der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. In: Hans-Bredow-Institut, Ed.: Internationales Handbuch Medien 2004/2005. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2004, pp. 245-268.
  • Kleinsteuber, Hans J.: Germany. In: Mary Kelly/Gianpietro Mazzoleni/Denis McQuail, Eds.: The Media in Europe. London : Sage, pp. 78-90.
  • Media Perspektiven, Basisdaten. Daten zur Mediensituation in Deutschland. (anually)
  • Meyn, Hermann: Massenmedien in Deutschland. Konstanz: UVK 2004.
  • Homepages with English information: http://www.ard.de (ARD), http://www.zdf.de (ZDF), http://www.bdzv.de (newspaper editors association), http://www.vdz.de (magazine editors association), http://www.kek.de (commission on concentration in the media).

11. AUTHORS

Hans J. Kleinsteuber and Barbara Thomass (2006)

12. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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