The “Media Ownership Monitor” (MOM) has been developed as a mapping tool in order to create a publicly available, continuously updated database that lists owners of all relevant mass media outlets (press, radio, television sectors and online media).

MOM aims to shed light on the risks to media pluralism caused by media ownership concentration (for more information: Methodology). In order to grasp the national characteristics and detect risk-enhancing or risk-reducing factors for media concentration, MOM also qualitatively assesses the market conditions and legal environment.

Media pluralism is a key aspect of democratic societies as free, independent, and diverse media reflect divergent viewpoints and allow criticism of people in power. Risks to diversity of ideas are caused by media market concentration, when only a few players exert dominant influence on public opinion and raise entrance barriers for other players and perspectives (media ownership concentration). The biggest obstacle to fight it is lack of transparency of media ownership: How can people evaluate the reliability of information, if they don´t know who provides it? How can journalists work properly, if they don´t know who controls the company they work for? And how can media authorities address excessive media concentration, if they don´t know who is behind the media´s steering wheel?

MOM thus aims to create transparency and to answer the question “who eventually controls media content?” in order to raise public awareness, to create a fact base for advocacy to hold political and economic players accountable for the existing conditions.

MOM doesn’t make normative statements – it doesn’t suggest how to control media ownership. Which form of media concentration control can work, depends on the country context, the existing legal and market conditions, the ownership landscape.

MOM provides a transparency tool to enforce a democratic discussion on that issue as well as good governance: decisions are likely to be of higher quality and to better reflect the needs and wishes of the people if they have access to adequate information and broad consultations, with views and opinions freely shared.

Preferably, official data sources, and/or sources with a high level of reliability and trust are used.

Whenever not publicly available, information was directly requested of media companies, political representatives and research institutes.

We used mainly data made available by:

• Media outlets/companies

• Court registries

• Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (KEK)

• Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyse e.V. (agma)

• Informationsgemeinschaft zur Feststellung der Verbreitung von Werbeträgern e. V. (IVW)

• Register of business entities

The main question is: which media outlets influence the opinion-forming process? In order to scan all relevant media, we included all traditional media types (Print, Radio, TV, Online). 

The media were selected according to the following criteria:

• MOM focused on media with the highest reach, measured by audience share. At most 10 media outlets per media type (TV, radio, print, Online) were selected.
• The news worthy and opinion content. The study focuses on general information with a national focus. As such, media with specific thematic focus (music, sport), social networks, search engines and advertisement were excluded.

According to the methodology, the 40 media were to be selected on the basis of their reach. Determining reliable reach figures was problematic in Germany for a number of reasons. For one thing, some reach figures are based on surveys, and for another, the IVW only lists media that voluntarily have their circulation or reach figures audited, and those that are of interest to the advertising industry – which is why public-sector online offerings are missing.

TV

The viewing figures for TV stations are based on AGF Videoforschung in collaboration with GfK 2023 and represent the average annual share of the total audience.

RADIO

The selection of radio stations is based on the agma-Ergebung Audio I/2024 and refers to the nationwide daily reach in the population aged 14 and over.

Source: agma MA Audio I/2024

PRINT MEDIA

The print media were selected on the basis of the data provided by IVW on the number of copies sold. The selection includes daily newspapers, weekly newspapers and magazines with a focus on current political events.

Source: IVW Q4/2023

ONLINE MEDIA

The online media were selected on the basis of the data provided by IVW and also the Similar Web survey, as IVW does not provide information on the reach of public online media. Since the media brands Web.de and GMX are from the same provider, we have selected a total of 11 media. The data refer to the period January 2024.

Source: IVW, Similar Web

In Germany, freedom of expression and freedom of the press are enshrined in the constitution. The country has a pluralistic media system with private and public broadcasting, which is financed independently of the government. There are hundreds of newspapers and numerous online magazines. In addition, broadcasting and the press are federally regulated. Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely for this reason, it is worth taking a look at the actual ownership structure behind the most influential media in order to create transparency and reveal possible conflicts of interest. Even though Germany obviously has a diverse media spectrum, at least the ownership structure of the largest media outlets is distributed among a small number of owners and is not necessarily known to the general public despite transparency obligations in registers. 

The MOM is based on a generic methodology that can be applied universally. The pilot phase was conducted in 2015 in Colombia and Cambodia. By 2024, the MOM was implemented in over 26 country world wide with fresh updates in the Philippines, Albania, Serbia and Lebanon. Ireland was the first EU country where MOM was implemented. Germany will be the second EU country to feature in the MOM family.

No economic data: No standardized data could be researched on the revenues of media companies in the field of journalism.

Dual broadcasting system: In principle, the public TV and radio stations have no owner, as they belong to “everyone”. We have therefore created a separate profile for the so-called “public” and explained the background there. Nevertheless, each broadcaster is independent.

Complex legal forms: In Germany, in addition to the usual constructs such as

• GmbH for limited liability corporations

• stock corporations (AG and SE)

• and KG for limited partnerships

mixed forms such as

• GmbH & Co. KG

• KG on shares (KGaA)

• SE & Co. KG

which means that not only the liability but also the disclosure obligations are limited, which makes research more difficult for the MOM.

This database:

• allows citizens and anyone else to learn about the media system in Germany and to know the owners of the media they follow. It also encourages awareness about the importance of ownership and transparency;
• creates a database and discusses issues related to diversity and transparency of the German media sector, which can be used by civil society organizations in their lobbying, by the government to strengthen diversity and by regulatory bodies to better fulfill their mandates.

This database presents the current state of the media in Germany. The project aims to generate a public debate and changes, particularly on the following topics:

• Media transparency
• the economic situation
• Political affiliations

• The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute (EUI) conducts the “Media Pluralism Monitor” (MPM). The EU-funded MPM identifies threats to such pluralism based on a broader set of indicators, covering legal, economic and socio-cultural considerations, taking media ownership concentration only as one of six dimensions. It assesses risks for media pluralism in the EU Member States.