Strengthening Digital Sovereignty: German Media Companies Test the Foundations of a Shared Data Infrastructure
For the first time, public and private media companies are working together on the future of digital media infrastructure. With ARD, ZDF, RTL Deutschland, ProSiebenSat.1, and the German Press Agency (dpa), some of the most important German media houses are involved at the launch of the initiative.
Together, they will develop the technical and organizational foundations for a sovereign, national media data infrastructure by autumn 2025. A decision will then be made as to whether a national “Media Data Space” will be permanently established from 2026 onwards. The project is coordinated by MISSION KI. The team is supported by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, the co-initiators of the “Beyond Platforms Initiative,” and the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST.
The 'Media Data Space' is meant to realize and strengthen digital sovereignty and competitiveness in Germany’s media landscape. The goal is to create a decentralized, AI-integrated data ecosystem. This will enable participating organizations to use their data in a sovereign manner and to develop innovative, collaborative services. The approach is designed to empower media companies to advance their digital transformation in the global marketplace on their own terms.
Partners Test Use Cases from the Media Sector
To this end, the partners are initially testing concrete use cases from the media sector. This will create the necessary technical infrastructure as a basis for further developing the data space. Among other things, the project addresses verifying the authenticity of news reports, detecting deepfakes with the help of shared AI models, harmonizing usage data, personalizing content, and jointly fine-tuning AI language models. Thanks to the principle of “compute to data,” data sovereignty always remains with the respective participating organization. The AI “travels” to the data – not the other way around.
Based on the testing of these use cases, MISSION KI aims to develop a generalizable standard as a technological foundation for new data spaces and AI-based innovations. To this end, MISSION KI has commissioned a specialized consortium consisting of Innovations- und Digitalagentur (ida) GmbH, Think-it GmbH, and Nexyo GmbH. This consortium is further developing the proven technical blueprint of the “Mobility Data Space” (MDS) from the mobility domain and adapting it to the needs of the media industry.
All societal stakeholders are invited to participate in the technical development of future-proof media ecosystems modeled on the European approach. Interested parties can contact the project team at acatech for further information and cooperation opportunities.
Note: The project evaluation will take place on 16 October 2025 in Munich. Media representatives may accredit themselves for the project evaluation as well as for in-depth discussions via the press contact listed below.
