At its 2026 Annu­al Gene­ral Assem­bly, Corint Media cele­bra­ted its 25th anni­ver­sa­ry tog­e­ther with its rights hol­ders, com­mit­tees and guests. In addi­ti­on to the report on the 2025 finan­cial year, the focus was on the chall­enge of secu­ring the future refi­nan­cing of pro­fes­sio­nal media con­tent for the repre­sen­ted TV and radio sta­ti­ons as well as press publishers. The neces­sa­ry con­di­ti­ons for the effec­ti­ve enforce­ment of legal­ly pro­tec­ted rights against mar­ket-domi­nant plat­form com­pa­nies were also addres­sed, as were the regu­la­to­ry frame­work con­di­ti­ons requi­red for pri­va­te media in the digi­tal plat­form eco­no­my.

In his key­note address mar­king the 25th anni­ver­sa­ry of Corint Media, the Minis­ter of Sta­te for Cul­tu­re and Media, Dr Wolf­ram Wei­mer, pain­ted a stark pic­tu­re of the cur­rent thre­at to free media in the age of arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence. The focus was on the inten­si­fy­ing batt­le for the refi­nan­cing of jour­na­li­stic con­tent, its com­mer­cial explo­ita­ti­on, and the media poli­cy initia­ti­ves of the cur­rent legis­la­ti­ve peri­od. Minis­ter of Sta­te Dr Wei­mer also empha­sis­ed that a digi­tal levy or tax, as a stan­da­lo­ne media poli­cy instru­ment, would lea­ve the rights of publishers and broad­cas­ters vis-à-vis plat­form com­pa­nies unaf­fec­ted. Their effec­ti­ve enforce­ment remains indis­pensable regard­less. He sta­ted: “The effec­ti­ve enforce­ment of the rights of publishers and broad­cas­ters vis-à-vis plat­form com­pa­nies is indis­pensable. The­se pri­va­te-sec­tor busi­ness models safe­guard the diver­si­ty and inde­pen­dence of the media. They are the­r­e­fo­re of fun­da­men­tal importance to the demo­cra­tic com­mu­ni­ty. A digi­tal levy or tax can­not and should not replace this.”

The Chair­man of the Super­vi­so­ry Board of Corint Media, Dr Micha­el Mül­ler, Chief Offi­cer of Regu­la­to­ry Affairs, Exter­nal & Govern­men­tal Rela­ti­ons at ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, sta­ted in his speech: “This is the rea­li­ty in 2026: more than half of every euro spent on adver­ti­sing in Ger­ma­ny now goes to Goog­le, Meta and Ama­zon. This trend threa­tens the eco­no­mic foun­da­ti­ons of Ger­man publishers and broad­cas­ters. That is why soli­da­ri­ty among rights hol­ders, a reso­lu­te poli­cy and sup­port from regu­la­to­ry aut­ho­ri­ties are essen­ti­al. Corint Media will not cea­se to demand this. Tog­e­ther, we must pre­ser­ve what distin­gu­is­hes the Ger­man media land­scape: diver­si­ty and relia­bi­li­ty.”

At the annu­al gene­ral mee­ting, Corint Media under­li­ned that pres­su­re on publishers and broad­cas­ters in the digi­tal envi­ron­ment con­ti­nues to mount. Plat­forms, search engi­nes and AI pro­vi­ders are making incre­asing use of jour­na­li­stic con­tent, whilst the eco­no­mic basis of con­tent pro­vi­ders is being incre­asing­ly ero­ded. This makes coll­ec­ti­ve rights manage­ment, fair mar­ket con­di­ti­ons and the con­sis­tent enforce­ment of exis­ting claims all the more cru­cial.

At the same time, the annu­al gene­ral mee­ting mark­ed a spe­cial anni­ver­sa­ry: sin­ce its foun­da­ti­on in 2001, Corint Media has been poo­ling and repre­sen­ting the copy­right and neigh­bou­ring rights of pri­va­te media com­pa­nies. Over the past 25 years, Corint Media has beco­me the cen­tral rights manage­ment orga­ni­sa­ti­on for the pri­va­te media sec­tor. Today, it con­sis­t­ent­ly repres­ents the inte­rests of 23 share­hol­ders and 575 rights hol­ders vis-à-vis users, plat­forms and other mar­ket play­ers. In 2025, its total tur­no­ver sin­ce its foun­da­ti­on excee­ded 1 bil­li­on euros.

At the annu­al gene­ral mee­tings, Dr Nina Ger­hardt, CEO of RTL Radio Deutsch­land GmbH, was also elec­ted as a new mem­ber of the Super­vi­so­ry Board. Her pre­de­ces­sor, the long-stan­ding REGIOCAST Mana­ging Direc­tor Dirk van Loh, had step­ped down at the end of 2025 for per­so­nal reasons. Back in the sum­mer of 2025, Andre­as Ger­hardt, Chief Con­tent & Dis­tri­bu­ti­on Offi­cer at SPORT1 GmbH, suc­cee­ded the for­mer Co-CEO of Sport1 and long-stan­ding mem­ber of the Corint Media Super­vi­so­ry Board, Dr Mat­thi­as Kir­schen­ho­fer.

The regu­lar elec­tion of dele­ga­tes and alter­na­te dele­ga­tes also took place. Andre­as Mül­ler (Media­huis Aachen GmbH), Dr Dani­el Daum (Chem­nit­zer Ver­lag und Druck GmbH & Co. KG) and Dirk Hol­ter­dorf (E. Hol­ter­dorf GmbH & Co. KG) were elec­ted as dele­ga­tes for the Publishers’ Group. Inken Boy­ens (Boy­ens Medi­en­hol­ding GmbH & Co. KG), Kai Röhr­bein (J. Gro­ne­mann GmbH & Co. KG) and Ile­ri Mei­er (HITZEROTH Druck + Medi­en GmbH & Co. KG) were appoin­ted as sub­sti­tu­te dele­ga­tes.

Niko­lai Schul­ze-Söl­de (RTL 2 Fern­se­hen GmbH & Co. KG) and Vera Nickel (Home Shop­ping Euro­pe GmbH) were elec­ted as dele­ga­tes for the Broad­cas­ting Com­pa­nies / Tele­vi­si­on Divi­si­on. Micha­el Kei­del (VIMN Ger­ma­ny GmbH) and Ben­ja­min Pir­ker (Dis­co­very Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons Deutsch­land GmbH & Co. KG) were appoin­ted as sub­sti­tu­te dele­ga­tes.

Sara Lai­er (Radio Rock­land GmbH & Co. KG) was elec­ted as dele­ga­te for the Broad­cas­ting Com­pa­nies Group / Radio Sec­tor. The alter­na­te dele­ga­te is Chris­ti­ne Rupp (Radio TON-Regio­nal Hör­funk GmbH & Co. KG).