The Bundeskartellamt in Bonn
The two biggest German private broadcasters RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat.1 Media have decided to fight the decision of the monopoly commission Bundeskartellamt to block their plan for a common online web TV platform.
In March, the Kartellamt said the plans of the two commercial broadcasters would only enforce their duopoly on the television market. RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 plan to invite all broadcasters to take part in the “German version of Hulu”, including the private broadcasters. The aim is to create a single destination site for online video.
The broadcasters’ plan involved offering a catch-up TV service for all of their programmes, which would be available free-to-view for a period of seven days after the original broadcast. Income would be generated by selling advertising around the programmes. At the moment, both RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 each have their own online video portal. ProSiebenSat.1 also owns the pay-per-view Maxdome VOD service.
By launching the action against the Kartellamt, the court of Dusseldörf now has to rule on the matter.
