25 Years of BLM:

Responsibility for the Future

In April 2010, the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien - Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting (BLM) has turned 25 years of age. In this quarter of a century, much has been achieved, as Bavaria is the most important location within Germany in respect of private radio and television broadcasting companies. To this development, the BLM has made a significant contribution.

According to the results of the current study »Economic Situation of Broadcasting Services in Germany«, the private TV stations domiciled in Bavaria generate more than 46 percent of the overall turnover of all private television companies in Germany. In terms of radio broadcasting, Bavaria also tops the corresponding ranking with a share of 21 percent. The good results in terms of turnover also have a positive impact on the number of employees: all in all, more than 30 percent of all personnel within Germany‘s private broadcasting companies work in Bavaria. At present, the BLM has licensed almost 170 radio and television programmes, significantly more than any other federal state‘s media supervisory authority.

Regional Broadcasting Services

From the very beginning, a crucial factor in the work of the Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting has been to build up a strong local and regional broadcasting services landscape. This policy is also enacted as a structural task of the BLM in the Bavarian Media Act. In the course of further developing the local broadcasting services system, the Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting has continuously modified its conceptions and adjusted them to current developments, without however abandoning the basic idea of a local broadcasting service that rightfully bears the name »local«.
Taking a look at the development of broad-casting services across Germany, one finds that both the first tele-shopping channel and the first digital television programmes have been launched from Bavaria. At the same time, the idea of shifting media concentration law away from the original focus on broad-casting companies to an audience share model in the mid-1990s also originated from the BLM. And last but not least, the numerous resolutions of the media council are worth remembering, in which private broadcasting companies were urged to improve the protection of minors as well as the quality of their respective programmes.

Commitment to the Young Generation

A location can only be successful if it also acts as a provider of intensive vocational education and advanced training. From the very beginning, the BLM has demonstrated particular commitment to this area – for instance by establishing the study course Media Marketing at the Bavarian Academy for Advertising and Marketing, as a source of inspiration and sponsor of the Bavarian Television Academy and through its creation of the vocational education and advanced training channels. In addition, the BLM has continuously supported a large number of existing and well-established vocational education and advanced training institutions.
Another important area is media education and media literacy. Here, the BLM has launched several projects at an early stage and on a sustained basis such as the promotion project »By one‘s own Direction«, which together with the JFF – Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice has supported youth groups in producing their own media content, or the initiative for the foundation of the association »Programme Advice for Parents«, which has published the FLIMMO ever since 1997. The most recent example is the establishment of the »Media Education Foundation Bavaria«, which has made an important contribution to the development of the Bavarian media usage licence.

If you were successful in the past, you also have a special responsibility for the future. As a result of rapidly increasing digitalisation of the media and the emergence of the Internet, an enormous number of new electronic media offers has come into existence over the past years. This development does not leave the long-established media unaffected. In this context, new tasks emerge for the regional regulatory authorities as well, which have so far been solved only to a very small extent. With regard to the future of local broadcasting services, two key questions will have to be answered over the coming years: how will local TV stations and, above all, local radio broadcasting companies manage to implement the changeover from analogue to digital and how can the quality of local broadcasting services be guaranteed? Next to that, the BLM considers its key tasks for the future to consist in a sustainable organisation of the media landscape in Bavaria, in the reinforcement of its efforts in the area of vocational and advanced training and in the field of media education and media literacy.

Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM)