Abstract
Funding and transparency of public service media (PSM) have constituted key media policy themes—and matters of considerable public debate—in Germany for some time now. The latter serves as the starting point for this book, which not only describes topical developments and discussions surrounding Germany’s public broadcasters but also assesses transparency and funding in 14 international PSM systems. Elaborating on the links between policy-making communities and academia, this chapter gives an introduction to the German developments and debates. It explains the choice of international case studies and provides for an overview of the contributions that follow.
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Notes
- 1.
According to research by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU 2015a, p. 11), in 2015 the income of the top 10 European commercial broadcasting groups (€52.49 billion) was greater than the total income of the 63 PSM organizations that are EBU members.
- 2.
The public value test is a detailed set of regulations for Internet and new media services, assessing the value for users and society and the impact on the domestic market.
- 3.
The tests were implemented in those northwest European countries where PSM organization’s media and Internet services are most advanced. Publishing and other media businesses were accordingly most affected, and thus complained.
- 4.
The most important PSM governance boards (Gremien) are the broadcasting councils (Rundfunkräte) of the nine PSM organizations which form the ARD, the ZDF television council and Deutschlandradio broadcasting council (Hörfunkrat).
- 5.
In some Länder, PSM organizations are excluded from the scope of freedom of information legislation.
- 6.
Therefore, a chapter investigating the US case is included.
- 7.
With regard to South Africa the role of the civil society organization SOS Coalition appears as particularly interesting as (civil society) interest groups offer an innovative opening into investigations of media policies and PSM governance (Herzog and Zetti 2017).
- 8.
The ARD Gremienvorsitzendenkonferenz is the governance body dealing with the joint functions of the nine federal PSM organizations combined in the ARD.
- 9.
The MDR serves the three Länder Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
- 10.
Vorsitzender der Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten.
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Herzog, C., Novy, L., Hilker, H., Torun, O. (2018). Transparency and Funding of Public Service Media in Germany, the Western World and Beyond. In: Herzog, C., Hilker, H., Novy, L., Torun, O. (eds) Transparency and Funding of Public Service Media – Die deutsche Debatte im internationalen Kontext. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-17997-7_1
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