Centralized Governance, the Three-Step Test and Beyond (2004 onwards)

Abstract

The Springer press empire from time immemorial followed a political conservative agenda. Its flagship Bild, Germany’s market-leading tabloid, sells 3.15 million issues daily and has a reach of 11.5 million. With ProSiebenSat.1, in 2006, Axel Springer AG virtually tried to take over half of Germany’s commercial television sector in order to develop into a vertically integrated conglomerate. The Federal Cartel Office and the KEK raised severe objections. According to the Federal Cartel Office, by means of the takeover Springer would infringe competition law in three markets: national newspaper street sales, national newspaper advertising and television advertising. With regard to the last, the RTL Group (Bertelsmann) and the ProSiebenSat.1 Group (then owned by an investment consortium led by Haim Saban) each controlled about 45 per cent and thus already formed an oligopoly (Röper 2006: 115). In 2005 both groups recorded 25.2 (RTL) and 22.1 (ProSiebenSat.1) per cent of the total audience share while ARD, the ARD Third Channels and ZDF combined had 40.9 per cent. After the decision of the Federal Cartel Office, Springer still had the chance to appeal at the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf and to request a special permit from the Minister for Economic Affairs. The General Election in November 2005 had led to a grand coalition CDU/SPD government under Angela Merkel (CDU), with Michael Glos (CSU) being the responsible Economics Minister (2005–9). Given that ProSiebenSat.1 is partly based in Munich, in order to serve Bavarian Standortpolitik interests, Edmund Stoiber (CSU), head of the Bavarian Land government (1993–2007), as well as Wolf-Dieter Ring, director of the Land media authority in Bavaria (1990–2011), endorsed the takeover ex ante. There were, accordingly, good prospects that Glos would follow suit.