South Tyrol and cross-border broadcasting: from illegal antennas to a streaming app
‘This content is not available in your country.’ A frustrating message familiar to many members of linguistic minorities. Geoblocking often denies them access to online content such as streaming services and media libraries from other countries where their language is spoken. This blog article takes a closer look at the case of South Tyrol. South Tyrol has officially had access to the TV programmes of Austria, Germany and Switzerland since the 1970s. With a new app, digital live streaming of TV channels is now also possible. Could the idea behind the app serve as a model for other minority regions?
Minorities and the geoblocking problem
Geoblocking is a recurring topic in political debates. Minorities are particularly affected by this, as it means they only have limited access to media offerings in their ‘kin-states’ (or ‘home-state’, i.e. countries with ethnic, linguistic or cultural ties to a minority in another country). The range of films available on streaming portals such as Netflix, for example, varies from country to country due to licensing regulations. These determine the regions in which certain content can be shown. The selection of films is often based on the respective national language. Both the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Article 9) and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Article 11) call for minorities to have (cross-border) access to media in their languages.
One intention of the European Citizens’ Initiative Minority SafePack, which was submitted to the European Commission in 2020, was to create a standardised European copyright law in the long term. This was intended to remove licence barriers and enable cross-border access to audiovisual media. The European Commission has recognised the proposals on geo-blocking, but has not taken up the ideas of the citizens’ initiative.
The European Parliament put the topic back on the agenda in 2023 in the form of a resolution – also with reference to linguistic minorities – but not much has changed since then. However, the often difficult access to media offerings in a minority language is not in itself a new or digital phenomenon, as the case study of South Tyrol shows.
South Tyrol’s path to a ‘TV paradise’
South Tyrol’s Autonomy Statute of 1972 includes special measures to protect the German and Ladin-speaking minorities living there. One of the first priorities of the autonomous South Tyrol was to provide the population with access to German-language radio and television programmes from abroad. In the 1960s, clever radio and television technicians succeeded in receiving incoming radio and television signals from Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the mountains and sending them down into the valley via simple transmitters. The fact that the Austrian television programme was included with the sale of a television set was a good selling point for sellers. However, these self-built installations were illegal.
In 1973, an enactment decree came into force that enabled South Tyrol to set up a network for the ‘reception of radio and television broadcasts of foreign radio and television stations from the German and Ladin cultural area’. The generally formulated addition ‘by using any technical means’ turned out to be a visionary idea that is paying off today. The support of the representatives of the Italian language group in South Tyrol, not least Alcide Berloffa, the then President of the important Commission of Six, was also decisive on the way to the enactment.
Two years later, based on a provincial law, the foundation stone was laid for the Broadcasting Corporation South Tyrol (RAS), which took over all illegal broadcasting facilities and has since modernised the network continuously. South Tyrol is still the only province in Italy to have its own public broadcaster. On the basis of these legal foundations, South Tyrol signed agreements in 1974 and 1975 with the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), the German broadcasting organisations ARD and ZDF and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). All three countries allowed South Tyrol to broadcast a selection of their television and radio channels for free.
If we were to continue relying solely on an hour and a half of German television [produced in South Tyrol] in the future, we would be increasingly drawn into the maelstrom of the Italian mentality and way of thinking, leading to cultural assimilation sooner or later.
Silvius Magnago
The offer was gradually expanded over the years. Silvius Magnago, the then President of South Tyrol and one of the most important architects of the minority protection in South Tyrol, commented on this step in an interview with the newspaper ‘Südtirol in Wort und Bild’ in 1974 as follows: ‘If we were to continue relying solely on an hour and a half of German television [produced in South Tyrol] in the future, we would be increasingly drawn into the maelstrom of the Italian mentality and way of thinking, leading to cultural assimilation sooner or later. That’s why we need an alternative, regardless of whether the programmes from German-speaking countries are better or worse.’
Since the 1970s, South Tyrol has therefore had two other media kin-states, Germany and Switzerland, in addition to Austria, the historical kin-state. It is worth mentioning that Switzerland also provides South Tyrol with the Romansh-language programme of Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha. In a booklet celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Broadcasting Corporation South Tyrol, the province was described as a ‘TV paradise’ due to its TV selection. A study from 2012 shows the interest in TV programmes from abroad: around two thirds of South Tyrolean TV viewers watched ORF 1, ORF 2 and ZDF. National Rai channels followed behind in terms of popularity.
However, the cross-border transmission of radio or television signals is not unique to South Tyrol. For example, the Good Friday Agreement also refers to the broadcasting of Ireland’s Irish-language TV station TG4 (formerly Teilifís na Gaeilge) in Northern Ireland. The Swedish minority in Finland, to name another example, also received access to television programmes from Sweden through various special agreements.
South Tyrol’s new TV app as a geoblocking solution?
South Tyrol’s agreements with the broadcasting organisations of Austria, Germany and Switzerland related to the terrestrial distribution of the television signal. Other German-language private broadcasters from abroad could gradually be received via cable or satellite. Today, there is also a wide range of non-linear online video programmes in German. The possibility of German-language television in South Tyrol has therefore probably lost some of its significance.
The long-standing free arrangement between South Tyrol and the broadcasting organisations ARD and ZDF has also come to an end in 2024. The contract was cancelled by the German broadcasters. After ‘difficult negotiations’, the parties agreed on an annual sum of around 250,000 euros to be paid by South Tyrol to ARD and ZDF. The fee was calculated on the basis of potential users in South Tyrol: According to a survey by the South Tyrolean Provincial Statistics Institute ASTAT, 157,000 of the total 226,167 households in South Tyrol are German-speaking. ORF now also receives almost 2 million annually, as shown by decrees passed by the South Tyrolean Provincial Government in 2020 and 2025. However, in this case South Tyrol is paying for the ORF news programme ‘Südtirol heute’, for example, which is produced in South Tyrol.
The last agreement with ZDF and ARD for the first time contained a new passage stipulating that the television programmes may be retransmitted ‘via OTT streaming in the province up to a maximum number of 20,000 users’. At the end of 2024, the RAS then presented the app referred to in this wording. It allows the television programmes of ARD, ZDF and ORF to be streamed in real time throughout South Tyrol via mobile phone or tablet. The Swiss programmes of SRG SSR are not yet available in the streaming app of the Broadcasting Corporation South Tyrol.
The downside: RAS was prohibited from offering time-shifted use or a media library. Media libraries remain behind the geoblocking barrier and the new app therefore does not solve the geoblocking problem. Detours via virtual private networks (VPN), a technology that disguises one’s own IP address and virtually changes location, will therefore still be necessary to access these media libraries.
However, the way the app works is worth a closer look. In order to use the app, users must activate the location function on their mobile phone and allow the app to access their location data. Only those who are located within the borders of South Tyrol according to the location information can use the livestream service. This location-based access could therefore also be the basis for activating content from media libraries in a precisely defined area. The ORF can imagine contractual models that would allow South Tyroleans unrestricted access to the media library.
In this sense, the app with its GPS approach could also serve as a model for other minority areas. So far, the RAS app has been downloaded around 10,000 times on Google Play. One user writes in his review: ‘Generally a great app and idea, just a few years out of date. Nowadays, people watch much more via the media libraries.’ He gives it four out of five stars. Let’s see how quickly South Tyrol can catch up to earn a fifth.
Note: This article gives the views of the author and does not represent the position of the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS) or Eurac Research.
Citation
This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license except for third-party materials or where otherwise noted.
This blog is supported by the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS). MIDAS was founded in 2001 to provide assistance to minority language newspapers and nowadays has members all over Europe. MIDAS serves as a platform for exchange, uniting minority language newspapers to present a collective voice to the European institutions.
My cookie preferences