Under their regime of rotating responsibilities in a bi-annual rhythm, Siegfried Schneider, President of the Bavarian regulatory authority (BLM), took over the chair of the Conference of Directors ("Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten - DLM") on 1 January 2016, succeeding Dr. Jürgen Brautmeier in this function. The chair automatically also includes presiding the ZAK the Commission on Licensing and Supervision. Jochen Fasco (Media Authority of Thuringia – TLM) and Cornelia Holsten (Media Authority of Bremen – brema) have been appointed as Vice-Chairpersons. Thomas Langheinrich was confirmed as the DLM’s European Representative.
Schneider sees net neutrality, platform regulation and accessibility as core issues to deal with:
As his main objective, Schneider aims at strengthening the existing variety and plurality of the German media landscape in the digital media order, firmly rooting the protection of essential interests of society in it.
According to Dr. Brautmeier, the German regulators will continue to also look after the issues which are relevant for the welfare of society beyond purely commercial and technological matters:
The DLM, which consists of the legal representatives of the 14 media authorities, deals with the interests of its members concerning broadcasting issues on the national and international levels. It exchanges views, opinions and information with broadcasters and also deals with common matters over and above the licensing and supervision of audiovisual media. It commissions expert views and surveys on matters of principal relevance for the member authorities and monitors and analyses the development of programmes and content.