Page 105 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

94 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

for conservative politicians, it also offered an opportunity to restructure
the public sphere in broadcasting.
When the new CDU/CSU and FDP coalition came to power in
October 1982, it curbed public spending and endeavoured to create
favourable investment conditions for private enterprise. One weapon in
its strategy was to use the monopoly position of the Deutsche
Bundespost (DBP), the federal telecommunications authority, to expand
the broadcasting infrastructure. The SPD/ FDP coalition had already set
up two federal commissions, the Kommission für den Ausbau des
technisches Kommunikations-systems (KtK) in 1974, and the Enquete-
Kommission ‘Neue Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken’ in
1981, to look at these questions. Their aim was to analyse new
information and tele-communication developments, and to assess not
only their economic potential, but also their legal framework and their
likely political and social impacts. The central argument of the Enquete-
Kommission was that the German telecommunications market was
economically decisive, since 70 to 80 per cent of telecommunications
equipment was sold at home and it was important as a testing ground
for exports; and it emphasized the DBP’s strategic role as the largest
purchaser. Satellites would be most effective in conjunction with the
small cable networks or existing MATV systems, but reception was not
expected to be individual. But because of ideological differences
between its members, the Enquete-Kommission did not produce any
recommendations and the change of government in 1982 cut short its
deliberations. 3
The conservatives on the Enquete-Kommission were motivated by an
industrial-political rationale. German telecommunications cable
manufacturers, and the brown goods sector of the electronics industry in
particular, were suffering from stagnation and severe export problems
which, it was hoped, could be ameliorated by the short-term expansion
of copper cable systems for television distribution. They therefore
stressed that the Länder had to create the regulatory framework for new
programme channels so as to make the desired expansion of cabling
4
cost-effective. But by 1983, when the new CDU Minister for Posts and
Telecom munications, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, launched his
nationwide cable distribution policy, the future for big business lay in
optical fibre rather than copper cable. Although the commercial benefits
of developing cable broadcasting had become marginal for the large
companies, coaxial cabling was expected to create new market
opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those
involved in connecting the cable and in servicing MATV; the promotion