Resumen de Germany: : Analogue transmission of ARD-Alpha not compulsory for Kabel Deutschland
Following an application from Kabel Deutschland Vertriebs und Service GmbH & Co. KG, the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian New Media Office - BLM) has decided that there are no grounds in media law to prevent the ARD-Alpha analogue feed being withdrawn from the cable network.
In accordance with the official procedure for programme reassignment in the cable network, Kabel Deutschland had announced its intention to withdraw the analogue feed of the ARD-Alpha (previously BR-Alpha) TV channel from its cable service in Bavaria at the end of 2014 and requested confirmation that there would be no objections to this decision under media law. Kabel Deutschland did not consider ARD-Alpha a priority channel as defined by law. It claimed that Bayerische Rundfunk, once it had changed the name of BR-Alpha to ARD-Alpha, could no longer rely on the must-carry status of BR-Alpha, which was laid down in law.
