EU court confirms German state aid to TV broadcasters illegal

Sep 15, 2011, 14:40 GMT

Luxembourg - State aid granted by a German media oversight agency to television channels in the Berlin area, to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting, was illegal, European Union judges confirmed on Thursday.

The EU Court of Justice confirmed a 2005 decision by the EU's executive, the European Commission, which ordered the RTL, ProsiebenSAT1 and FAB broadcasters to return the money to state authorities.

In a statement, the commission welcomed the ruling, which dismissed an appeal that the German government brought before the EU court in 2009.

State aid can be justifiable only if an EU member 'proves that it is a necessary and proportionate instrument to correct a market failure,' the commission said.

Germany failed the test, because broadcasters had already agreed to switch to digital before the aid was offered to them.

Earlier this year, EU judges in Luxembourg also ruled against a subsidy that the government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had granted for digital television decoders.

The aid only applied to decoders of land-based digital television signals, not satellite signals, representing a significant advantage for - among others - the Berlusconi family's Mediaset, which specializes in terrestrial digital television.

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