Abstract

Reasons and Limits of the Public Service Broadcasting Remit in the Internet

In 2007 the European Commission decided formally to close an investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into the financing regime for German public service broadcasters in light of formal commitments by the German Government to amend the current regime. The core of this reform, confirmed by the German Government, was to substantiate the description of the public service remit for the new media services and to establish a “three-step test” for these offers which adapts the British Public Value Test of the BBC. Enacting the necessary measures, however, the compliance with national constitutional law was hardly considered. According to the constitutional “freedom of broadcasting” the public service broadcasters are allowed to offer new media services only with programme-related content. Such limitations on the public service remit are clearly compatible with European Union Law. The “three-step test” recently implemented to fulfil the obligations set up by the European Commission, therefore, proves to be superfluous in relation to both national constitutional law and the European Union law.