Jörn Krieger | 14-08-2013
Germany's largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland has been sentenced by Berlin's district court to pay €45.6 million in additional copyright and intellectual property right fees to rights collection association VG Media for the cable distribution of commercial TV and radio channels.
The cable company had insufficiently compensated the broadcasters since 2006, the judges decided. VG Media has therefore the right to claim considerable additional reimbursements.
Kabel Deutschland has only paid small contributions to VG Media since 2006. In the court case, the cable company wanted the judges to constitute that VG Media actually has no legal right at all to claim copyright fees for the cable carriage of commercial TV and radio channels on its network.
Kabel Deutschland considers lodging an objection against the decision. "We have taken note of the ruling by Berlin's district court and now wait for the written grounds for the judgement," a Kabel Deutschland spokesman told Rapid TV News. "We reserve the right to take the matter to the next legal instance."
VG Media represents the copyright interests of 142 TV and radio broadcasters including almost all German commercial channels as well as international broadcasters such as Eurosport, CNN International, CNBC, Bloomberg, Euronews, France 24, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.