In the Bundeskartellamt's view the plans by Media Broadcast GmbH, Bonn, to establish a paid access programme platform in the transition process from DVB-T to DVB-T2 will not lead to a restriction of competition.

DVB-T is a digital broadcasting standard for TV programmes. DVB-T2, which is planned to be launched in the course of 2016, succeeds DVB-T as a new standard offering higher bandwidth, more robust transmission procedures and higher flexibility in the transmission network. Media Broadcast is a technical service provider which transmits the programmes of the TV channels. In the course of the transition from DVB-T to DVB-T2 the company plans to establish a programme platform to market in particular the HD content of private TV channels against payment. This marketing model was submitted to the Bundeskartellamt for examination under competition law.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "The business relationship between such a platform operator and broadcasting groups must be structured in such a way as to comply with competition law rules. Media Broadcast has conducted separate negotiations with the private TV channels to conclude individual agreements on the transmission of the programmes against payment. This conduct does not restrict competition."

Media Broadcast's TV transmission under the DVB-T standard is currently based on a pure transport model whose transmission costs are borne solely by the TV channels. During the last few years the DVB-T agreements with the large private TV broadcasting groups have been running out. At first RTL decided not to extend DVB-T transmission beyond the end of 2014. Against this background Media Broadcast developed a marketing platform which offers programme packages based on DVB-T2. It is planned to encrypt HD content of the two large private broadcasting groups Pro Sieben Sat 1 and RTL as well as HD and SD content of other private broadcasters and to broadcast this content in digital pay-TV using the DVB-T2 standard. However, as requested by the public service broadcasters, the transmission of their content will continue to be operated under the transport model without encryption and free of charge for consumers.

At the end of 2012, the two large private broadcasting groups in the area of cable, satellite and IPTV had already submitted an undertaking to the Bundeskartellamt to transmit SD and HD programmes in parallel. However, due above all to frequency shortages, this is not a feasible solution for DVB-T2.
The business policy decision to establish a paid access programme platform was taken autonomously by Media Broadcast. For the private broadcasting groups it was more attractive to have their content transmitted on the basis of encrypted paid transmission than to forego this transmission channel entirely.

According to the Bundeskartellamt's findings, each of the broadcasting companies involved have made an independent decision on whether and under which terms they would make their programmes available for transmission by Media Broadcast.