- published: 19 Jan 2014
- views: 15982
Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] (BR) is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat (Republic) of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD. BR shares broadcasting with ARD for 1⁄5 of the day
BR is a broadcaster for the general public. Its functions are determined by a legal foundation, which creates the broadcaster's principles and its internal organization. These regulations are contained in the Bavarian Broadcasting Law (Bayerisches Rundfunkgesetz), originally passed in 1948, and updated in 1993. At that time, it was comprehensively amended to make it relevant current media and political needs. This broadcast law is supplemented by the so-called Broadcast State Contract (Rundfunkstaatsvertrag), a multilateral agreement between all 16 German Länder which regulates the relationship of public and private broadcast in the dual broadcast system and which contains fundamental regulations particularly for financing. Just as important for the work of Bavarian Broadcasting is the cooperation of the ARD consortium, consisting of nine other regional broadcasting corporates as well as Deutsche Welle. The broadcasting service is further backed by the relevant European legal bases as well as the media service convention, which contain regulations for the on-line offerings of Bavarian Broadcasting.