The State Media Authority of Lower Saxony (NLM) is responsible for the licensing and supervision as well as the development of commercial radio and television broadcasting in Lower Saxony.

On nationwide issues and services the NLM cooperates with the other 14 State Media Authorities in Germany in the ALM.

The working basis of the NLM are interstate treaties – especially the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting and the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media - , European directives (especially Television without Frontiers Directive) and the State Media Law of Lower Saxony.

The NLM was founded in 1984. The Director, Reinhold Albert, is head of administration and legal representative of the authority; the chair of the assembly, which is pluralistically composed and represents all societal groups, is, Ortrud Wendt.

The key responsibilities of the NLM are:

Licensing of Commercial Broadcasters

The NLM grants licenses for TV channels or radio stations in Lower Saxony and for (broadcasting) services that are transmitted nationwide via satellite.

Programme/Telemedia Services Monitoring

Commercial radio and television broadcasting is subject to legal programming requirements, the implementation of which is monitored in Lower Saxony by the NLM. Since 2003 the NLM has not only been responsible for the protection of minors from harmful media content in the field of broadcasting, but also in telemedia – especially the internet - , as far as the provider is located in Lower Saxony.

Media Literacy

The promotion of media literacy has become one the key responsibility of the NLM in the last years. The NLM especially offers advice to teachers, parents and other persons, who are involved in the education of children and adolescents. More than the traditional media the internet offers content from which young people have to be protected. The NLM has started training-activities for the different target groups – partly in cooperation with the citizens’ media facilities – to solve this problem.

Citizens’ Media

The State Media Law supported the development of citizens’ media in Lower Saxony. Today, the NLM promotes 15 citizens’ media stations: 10 private non-commercial radio stations, 2 TV-stations and 3 stations which offer both. Most of the citizens’ media stations in Lower Saxony have been on air for about ten years. In citizens’ media, people have the opportunity to design, produce and broadcast TV and/or radio programmes. Legally, the citizens’ media have 3 tasks: realization of individual freedom of opinion, complementing the local media landscape journalistically and conveying media skills. Local news coverage should be a main programming focus.

Technical Infrastructure

The NLM supports technical infrastructures and new broadcast transmission technologies. The digitisation of transmission platforms is also increasing in Lower Saxony:

DVB-T – Digital Video Broadcasting terrestrial –was introduced with 22 channels in the regions Hannover/Braunschweig and Bremen/Unterweser in May 2004. In the meantime DVB-T can be received in many parts of Lower Saxony, in rural regions only public-service channels are transmitted.

DAB-T – Digital Audio Broadcast –was launched in Lower Saxony in summer 2000 with 1 commercial and 5 public-service channels currently 6 public-services an 1 traffic-channel are transmitted.

For testing new digital technologies the NLM supports the field trial DRM –Digital Radio Mondiale – in Hannover, which started in August 2005 in collaboration with the Leibniz University of Hannover/ Institute of Communications Engineering and the company “Starwaves”.  The trial determined in the first step the possibilities of digital transmission in local areas on shortwave in the 11-m-band. Currently NLM and Leibniz University are testing in the second face DRM+ transmissions in the FM-Band in view of the digitisation of the FM-Band.