The number of commercial local and regional TV channels has considerably decreased in Germany last year.
In total, there have been only 232 such services throughout Germany at the beginning of 2014 while one year ago the figure amounted to 264 channels. The development is reported by the media authorities in their yearbook 2013/2014 published today.
The exceptions are larger broadcasters serving not just specific regions, but whole federal states which maintained their variety with a total of 19 channels.
Jürgen Brautmeier, head of the media authorities’ commission, called for stronger efforts to improve the situation on the local front: “Local television is an important factor of local variety, therefore public funds are required. Only then, it can survive the competition in the digital world.”
