German public broadcasters formally accept the productions they commission. In 2016 the courts of audit of the states served by MDR, the public broadcaster for central Germany, examined its commissioned productions. Thuringia’s court led the audit. They found that MDR had accepted the script in every case they examined before the cost negotiations. The production contracts ran bis zur Endabnahme durch den MDR, until the final acceptance by MDR. The auditors noted a consequence. In one production, the script acceptance and production release in March 2013 had bound MDR legally to the producer.