Every German household pays the Rundfunkbeitrag, the broadcasting fee. Its amount is set in three steps. The public broadcasters report their financial needs. An independent commission, the KEF, checks whether the needs were calculated in line with the principles of economy and thrift. Then the state parliaments must adopt the figure. For 2021 the KEF proposed a rise of 86 cents, from 17.50 euros to 18.36 euros a month. Fifteen states approved it. Saxony-Anhalt did not. On 20 July 2021, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that this violated the freedom of broadcasting, and the court ordered the fee of 18.36 euros to apply provisionally. A state may depart from the commission’s figure only with the agreement of all the states. In November 2024, ARD and ZDF went to court again, seeking 18.94 euros from 2025. The court heard the case on 23 June 2026. As of October 2026, it had not yet ruled.