The planned reform of the Media State Treaty: What should change for the digital media landscape

The German federal states are working on a comprehensive reorganization of media regulation.

A Radio Commission Discussion Paper of October 2025 outlines far-reaching reform proposals for a ‘Digital Media State Treaty’ to secure the communicative foundations of our democracy in the digital age.

So, so to speak, ‘we finally have to tax the new territory’?

At its core, it is about making the media order fit for an era in which artificial intelligence, social platforms and algorithms are decisively shaping access to information. The proposals aim to strengthen journalistic quality, create a level playing field and protect democratic communication spaces from manipulation.

Let's take a look at it:

Summary: Discussion paper on the Digital Media State Treaty (DMStV)

The October 2025 Broadcasting Commission paper develops reform proposals for media regulation in three main areas:

I. Strengthen content providers and refinancing

Economic framework conditions:

• Create balanced advertising regulation (no new advertising bans, level playing field between broadcasting and digital platforms)
• Make quantitative advertising restrictions more flexible, but maintain separation requirements
• Support local/regional media in a targeted manner

AI regulation:

• Include AI services such as ChatGPT as media-relevant services (sources, plausibility checks, accountability)
• Copyright Clarifications for AI Training
• Introduce transparency obligations and rights to remuneration for rightholders

Findability:

• Sharpen public value criteria for reliable content
• Expand findability to new platforms (app stores, car systems, AI)
• Preferably make individual content in feeds/timelines visible (labeling system)

Journalistic standards:

• Align journalistic due diligence (broadcast/online)
• Privilege for providers with journalistic standards (protection against discrimination, downranking)

II. Open spaces for communication and effective supervision

Protection against tampering:

• Marking obligation for automated accounts, bots and paid content
• Measures against Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (fake accounts, cloned websites)
• Implementation of association bans in the media sector

Supervisory efficiency:

• Focus on democratically relevant protective goods (additional offences to be included in JMStV/MStV)
• Introduce the "leadership principle" in common procedures
• Strengthening the independence of European supervisory structures

De-bureaucratisation:

• Review and streamline reporting obligations
• Digitize and simplify administrative procedures

III. Enabling growth and ensuring diversity

Media concentration law:

• Significantly expand beyond TV to platform power and distribution structures
• Use advertising/revenue and reach as indicators
• Consider cross-ownership constellations

Cooperations:

• Reducing competition law hurdles for media cooperation
• Generally allow outlinks on market-powerful platforms

Key objective: Modernising media regulation for the digital age while maintaining journalistic standards and democratic communication spaces.

Detail consideration:

Creating fair conditions in the advertising market

A key concern is the refinancing of private media. While traditional broadcasters are subject to strict advertising restrictions, digital platforms operate largely without regulation. The reformers call for a ‘level playing field’: Equal rules for anyone competing for advertising revenue.
Specifically, this does not mean new advertising bans, but rather a flexibilization of existing restrictions. Particularly local and regional media, which are under enormous cost pressure, should benefit from this.

Take responsibility for AI offerings

The proposals for the regulation of artificial intelligence are particularly controversial. ChatGPT, Google AI Overview and similar services are to be classified as media-relevant offers in the future.

That would mean: Obligation to indicate the source, plausibility checks based on reliable sources and responsibility for generated content. In addition, the Länder demand copyright clarifications: When AI systems are trained with journalistic content, rights holders should be transparently informed and remunerated.

Making reliable content more discoverable

In a world where algorithms decide what users see, findability becomes an existential question for quality journalism. The reform proposals envisage sharpening so-called ‘public value’ criteria for reliable content and extending its privileged presentation. This should apply not only to user interfaces, but also to feeds, timelines, and even AI responses.
Media providers could label their content by category in order to be algorithmically preferred. Journalistic offerings that meet recognized standards should also be protected against discrimination. This can be done through paywalls or outlinks and they should not be downgraded as a result.

Protection against manipulation and disinformation

The digital communication spaces are under increasing pressure from coordinated attempts at manipulation. The paper addresses so-called ‘Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour’: Fake accounts, social bots, cloned news sites and purchased likes. In the future, automated content and paid placements will have to be clearly marked.

We also want to examine the extent to which practices that fake human activity can be banned. In addition, digital offers from legally prohibited associations should no longer be available online.

More effective supervision and less bureaucracy

The media supervision by the state media institutions is to be strengthened and at the same time purged. The focus should be more on democracy-relevant protective goods, for example by including further criminal offences such as doxing or insulting persons of political life in the competence of the media supervisory authority. At the same time, unnecessary reporting requirements are to be reduced and administrative procedures digitised.

Rethinking Media Concentration

Particularly far-reaching are the considerations on media concentration law. So far, it has focused heavily on television; In the future, platform power and dissemination structures will also be covered. If content and infrastructure are in one hand, the Commission should be able to intervene to determine concentration in the media sector (CEC). Advertising revenues, revenues and reach should serve as indicators of opinion power.

Conclusion:

The whole thing sounds like a balancing act with a completely open output

The proposals mark an attempt to bring an analog media order into the digital age. Whether and in what form they are implemented is open; The paper is for discussion first.

But it is clear: The reform aims to protect journalistic quality without stifling innovation, and to ensure democratic communication without restricting freedom of expression. A balancing act that won't get any easier given the dominance of global tech platforms and the rapid pace of AI development.

More info? You can see it here:
Discussion paper 10/25 | DMStV Minutes of meetings | heise.de Article | Radio Commission RLP |