“A country must not destroy the media order”

Carsten Brosda has been a senator at the Hamburg Authority for Culture and Media since 2017. Since the end of May he has been coordinating the media policy of the SPD-led federal states. The states coordinate broadcasting and media policy with each other in the Broadcasting Commission.

How is the broadcasting fee developing?

Brosda also commented on the financing of public broadcasting. Since the states were unable to agree on an increase in the broadcasting fee in 2024, the Federal Constitutional Court “will probably have to act again,” he said. The KEF Finance Commission recommended an increase in the broadcasting fee by 58 cents to 18.94 euros in 2024. Since the states did not implement this recommendation, ARD and ZDF filed a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court in November 2024. The Karlsruhe judges heard the matter in June and a decision is expected this year.

Basic compromise

The basic compromise on the broadcasting fee, which the states agreed on in 2024, provided for a "mildered form of moderate automated adjustments," said Brosda: "It would have been good if we had passed that. Unfortunately, we will now have to find answers in a more complicated way."

When it comes to the savings efforts of the public broadcasters, he sees “a tendency that, as a cultural politician, I am annoyed about,” said the media politician, who is himself a trained journalist, with a view to savings on the ARD’s cultural channels. However, he also wonders whether every station needs its own cultural program or whether it wouldn't make more sense to combine the cultural offerings into a "cultural stream" in the media library: "Sometimes I would like to see more flexibility instead of just saying: We'll leave it alone for now."

“The chance to try things out”

There is a lot that ARD and ZDF could change without the states having to change the state treaties, said Brosda: "I would like someone to say that we would like to cooperate more and present the programs differently. Through the contribution funding, public broadcasting has the chance to try things out and not just calculate what the audience likes."