{"id":96776,"date":"2025-10-23T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/96776\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T15:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:54:07","slug":"german-culture-minister-urges-mfe-to-keep-promises-on-prosiebensat-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/96776\/","title":{"rendered":"German Culture Minister Urges MFE To “Keep Promises” On ProSiebenSat.1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGermany\u2019s Minister for State and Culture and Media has urged MediaForEurope<\/a> boss Pier Silvio Berlusconi to keep \u201cpromises\u201d about ProSiebenSat.1 Media<\/a>\u2018s future.<\/p>\n

\n\tWolfram Weimer made the direct address to Berlusconi at the Munich Media Days event yesterday after MFE replaced<\/a> ProSieben CEO Bert Habets with MFE CFO Marco Giordani earlier this week. The minister said Bavaria\u2019s Minister-President Markus S\u00f6der was \u201cpaying special attention\u201d to the situation as a keen supporter of media independence.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeimer and Berlusconi had discussions about the future of German broadcaster ProSieben after MFE gained 75.61% of voting shares last month<\/a>, as the Italy-based media group formed Europe\u2019s biggest broadcasting group through the deal. <\/p>\n

\n\tProSieben, which operates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, now sits in a group also comprising Italy\u2019s Mediaset and Spain\u2019s Mediaset Espa\u00f1a, with a stake in Portugal\u2019s Impresa also being sought. Germany\u2019s government has a much more local eye on the situation, however.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDear Mr. Berlusconi, we had intense and ultimately positive discussions both at the Chancellery in Berlin and, in particular, here in Munich with our Minister President S\u00f6der,\u201d said Weimer in a speech. \u201cPerhaps, dear Mr. Berlusconi, you don\u2019t know our S\u00f6der very well yet, but you should know that he is a real lion, and he pays special attention to strong media because he really fights for it. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s good that you have promised us to really strengthen ProSieben\u2019s Munich location. We will be keeping an eye on this. We are sure that you will keep your promises and want to see the Bavarian Media Authority and our lion happy. This is smart and good for ProSieben, but it is also important for Munich as a media location and for Germany as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a separate talk at the Munich Media Days, S\u00f6der welcomed the new bosses at ProSiebenSat.1, but warned against the lack of German investors. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe truth is that ProSiebenSat.1 has not been as successful in recent years as it could have been,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this respect, it\u2019s like in football: There is a change of coaches from time to time, and we now have to make sure that the development is positive, because the location is a strong media location, and media includes traditional media, but also everything around it, because today we are not only in the traditional media sector, but also in AI and digitalization.\u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tS\u00f6der is demanding ProSieben remains headquartered in Bavaria, which is in the southeast of Germany and around 400 miles from the capital, Berlin.<\/p>\n

\n\tGerman journalism unions have voiced concerns over the editorial direction of ProSieben under MFE, which led to Berlusconi providing assurances to senior government ministers that independence would remain. Berlusconi\u2019s late father, Mediaset founder Silvio Berlusconi, was known for strong views on the editorial and political lines of his Italian networks.<\/p>\n

\n\tSenior sources at ProSieben have told Deadline there has been no obvious interference in Germany to date, but Habets unexpected exit has led to more questions. The former CEO had been due to speak at the Munich Media Days, which is running this week.<\/p>\n

\n\tProSieben COO Markus Breitenecker and CFO Martin Mildner were also announced as exiting this week, as Giordani was sworn in as CEO of ProSieben. ProSieben chair Maria Kryiacou said said the new structure, which includes Bob Rajan coming in as interim CFO, \u201creflects the ambition to further accelerate the strategic transformation with a clear focus on excellence and a leading market position in entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStreamers meetings<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere in Weimer\u2019s speech, he said that several recent meetings with global streamers would \u201cvey soon\u201d result in an announcement around a \u201crestructuring of the production landscape.\u201d This would \u201cgive the struggling market a boost,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n\tNo details on the scope of shape of the talks were forthcoming, but it is known Germany\u2019s production sector has long been seeking an agreement with streamers that better compensates producers, writers, directors and other creatives in film and TV.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeimer and other members of Germany\u2019s government have been working on plans to introduce investment obligations on streamers, as part of plans to boost the number of films and TV shows made in the country.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome \u20ac250M ($290M) will be made available next year to encourage more filming, meaning that along with regional funds and other pots, around \u20ac310M will be on offer overall. This does not include production subsidies from federal states.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeimer has previously said government intervention is needed due to the \u201cimbalance\u201d caused by global streamers.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor streamers, the issue of local investment is becoming more and more pressing, with most countries now working on some form of levy or quota that matches, at least in part, the content obligations placed on local broadcasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s Minister for State and Culture and Media has urged MediaForEurope boss Pier Silvio Berlusconi to keep \u201cpromises\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,71459,111,139,69,71460,640,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-96776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-mediaforeurope","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-prosiebensat-1-media","14":"tag-regulation","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}