EU confirms German DTT subsidies illegal

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Subsidies granted by German media authority Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (MABB) to commercial broadcasters for the distribution of their channels via digital terrestrial frequencies (DTT) were not in line with the European Union’s state aid regulations, a European court has confirmed.

The Court of Justice of the European Communities has rejected the complaint lodged by the German government, MABB and local broadcaster FAB against the EU Commission’s prohibition of the subsidies. MABB has granted commercial broadcasters a total of €2 million since 2003 as a contribution to their DTT transmission costs. In exchange for the cash injection, the broadcasters committed themselves to remain for at least 5 years on the DTT platform, which, according to MABB, was one of the reasons for the success of the DTT deployment.

The EU Commission prohibited the grants in November 2005 and ordered their repayment, claiming that the one-sided payments favoured DTT to the detriment of competing distribution platforms such as cable and satellite. MABB, the German government and FAB lodged a complaint against the decision in January 2006. In collaboration with other media authorities, MABB will decide in the coming weeks whether it will appeal the decision.



Source:RapidTVNews