2024-10-11 12:56:00
This year private broadcasting turned 40. At first it was broadcast from a basement in Ludwigshafen like on Saturday 1 or from a house in Luxembourg which was called a “garage” like on RTL. Before the anniversary milestone ends, Vaunet celebrated Private media association with a reception in Berlin.
These association celebrations are never an end in themselves or mere pats on the back, but are always an opportunity to send signals to political Berlin. This is why it is extremely important which guests announce themselves; Whoever takes the chancellor has scored a coup. So Olaf Scholz stopped at the Berlin telegraph office to say hello and discuss the future of private broadcasters. Three outcomes of the Chancellor’s visit can be summarized.
First: Olaf Scholz doesn’t have time to watch TV. When WELT TV host Tatjana Ohm asked the Chancellor what he was watching, he reacted in disbelief, even though the question was obvious. He appears in the evening, talking to people or reading files until midnight. He did not recall a particularly memorable experience from the early years of private television (even though he was not even Federal Chancellor at the time – according to his answer, if he had not become Chancellor, he would have preferred to binge series in the evenings).
At the same time, Scholz had prepared some insights into media use, but not from his personal media use. There is no longer a great “bonfire” of television entertainment. And there is no better or worse entertainment anymore; the differences between public and private operators are no longer so marked.
Second: Olaf Scholz sees the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) for the creative industry. The writer Daniel Kehlmann, who recently visited him in the Chancellery, contributed to this. Scholz in the original tone: “He talked about a screenwriter friend in Los Angeles. His friend was able to test an artificial intelligence for screenwriters. Then he said to Daniel: I have maybe three, maximum five good years left.” Because this artificial intelligence was so good that the screenwriter “only had to describe the main characters, the plot and the atmosphere for a new series, and a few minutes later he had the script on his computer. There are six episodes written.
What will be possible with artificial intelligence, Scholz said, “we can’t even imagine today.” And then we returned to the beginnings of private television. Even then people wondered: “Will anyone still read the newspaper? Will people still be interested in politics? So advertising partners decide the content?” It didn’t happen that way.
“We are not responsible for the bad mood in the country!”
Third: almost none of Scholz’s interviews seem to be able to do without media criticism. In the ZDF summer interview, at the “Tagesspiegel”, at the appearance at the newspaper’s publishing house, now in Vaunet. The media shouldn’t always downplay the country’s atmosphere, Scholz says. And he wanted to “promote accuracy of reporting.” Not that I’m now saying the reporting is incorrect. This prompted Stephan Schmitter, managing director of RTL Deutschland, who like his colleague Bert Habets from ProSiebenSat.1 intervened in the discussion, to object: “We are not responsible for the bad mood in the country!”
On the other hand, Scholz made an effort to show understanding for the concerns of private broadcasters. Legislation that makes technology platforms more accountable is needed in Europe (it already exists with the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act). The “copyright question” in the age of AI needs to be clarified. The government must create a legal framework “for journalism that can make money” (with the interesting note: “We don’t need foundation journalism”). And yes, for interviews he not only goes to ARD and ZDF, but also to RTL, ProSiebenSat.1 «and many others».
“We continue to write the country’s success story,” Olaf Scholz concluded his short speech, in an attempt to connect the success story of private broadcasting with the German economy and, not least, with its government work. But what the two television executives said about the situation in the private sector is also true. Advertising customers have become hesitant, economic pressure is high, three quarters of digital advertising revenue in Germany goes to the three companies Meta, Alphabet and Amazon. “If you want diversity, you have to actively ensure it,” said Claus Grewenig, a member of Vaunet’s board of directors.
Cristiano Meier he has been involved in media politics for many years. As technology companies have increasingly determined the framework for the distribution of media content, conflicts and therefore the need for regulation have increased.
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