Court calls on ARD and newspaper publishers to enter talks

A German court has rejected an initial appeal by newspaper publishers to stop public broadcaster ARD from making a free daily news app available across the country, but has called on the two sides to negotiate an out-of-court deal, according to local reports.

The ruling means that public broadcasters will be able to continue, for now at least, to develop text-based services for mobile users. ARD launched its licence fee-funded free mobile app, carrying content from its Tagesschau.de portal, last December. The broadcaster was forbidded from launching new news services, but argued that the app was merely an extension of the existing service. ARD and the publishers now have a few months to reach a compromise ahead of a further court hearing next year.

Eight publishers, including Axel Springer, WAZ and FAZ, had contested the case.