The introduction of private commercial television was a pivotal event in German media policy-making. The chapter investigates the process which led to the licensing of commercial broadcasters. It adopts an actor-centered perspective, linking macro (media system), meso (styles of governance) and micro levels (key actors). The focus is directed on the two key actors which played the most decisive role in this process: the Minister for Post and Telecommunications Christian Schwarz-Schilling and the Professor of Business Economics Eberhart Witte. The actions of the two key actors are embedded into the process and respective developments. Beyond this, the chapter situates the liberalization of the public service oligopoly into the broader context of the privatization of Deutsche Bundespost.

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hdl.handle.net/1765/98496
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC)

Herzog, C. (2016). Vom öffentlich-rechtlichen Oligopol zum dualen Rundfunksystem: Die Einführung des Privatfernsehens aus akteurszentrierter Perspektive. In T. Birkner, M. Löblich, A. L. Tiews and H. U. Wagner (eds), Neue Vielfalt. Medienpluralität und – konkurrenz in historischer Perspektive/'New diversity. Media plurality and competition in historical perspective', Köln: Herbert von Halem (pp. 114–140). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/98496