2023: Conflict about public broadcasting

In 2023, a new law expanded the opportunities for the public broadcaster ORF to distribute its content in the digital space. Commercial media companies protested against this, as they see it as heavily subsidised competition.

However, these companies failed to mention in their coverage that they are also dependent on public funding. In this podcast episode, journalists from the daily newspaper Der Standard discuss the new law regulating the public broadcaster. One of the newspaper’s staff members presents himself as a neutral expert and does not address the conflict of interest.

Advertising and subsidies are also used to publicly fund media that regularly violates journalistic standards. One example of this is the Österreich Gruppe media company, which committed the largest number of offences against the independent Press Council’s rules between 2018 and 2023. This company also campaigned strongly against the new law and launched a petition against it. 

“Is the New ORF Becoming too Powerful?”, episode from the podcast “Thema des Tages”, 1:41 min., 26.4.2023, Der Standard

“What the ORF will earn from the new fees, you mentioned, is around 700 million euros. There’s also a little bit from advertising revenue.” 

“It’s not a petty sum at all. Sorry, I have to interrupt you. That’s a total of one billion euros, so 300 million from advertising and other income.” 

“So what kind of programming will the ORF make in future using this money? Or, to put it another way, how will this reform change the programming?” 

“Well, basically it will continue to make its programming—television, radio— as before. So nothing will change there. But the fundamental substantive change we can expect from this ORF law is an update in the digital realm. The ORF will be given more online opportunities. Above all, it will be allowed to produce online videos, whereas previously it was only allowed to do so for broadcast—in other words, for television and radio. This is also causing some resistance in the commercial media landscape.” 

“You mean private TV stations, newspapers and so on. What is the criticism, the opposition here?” 

“Well, in the digital space, public and private media—until now, that’s included media with their origins in newspaper or print—come together in the same market. So there is direct competition, and, of course, the ORF has these 700 million euros from the licence fee—or, in future, the subscription fee. This means it can relatively easily finance a very extensive range of services, and in future it will also be allowed to finance a very extensive range of online services. The ORF will also be permitted to produce online video content, which means that it will be in massive competition with commercial media companies that also focus heavily on video and audio.” 

Newspaper Austria & Oe24-media: “Launch of the petition against the ORF-broadcasting tax”, 1:24 min., 3.5.2023, OE24

The new ORF law of the conservative-green federal government obliges every Austrian to pay a compulsory ORF tax and massively endangers media diversity in Austria. Austria and oe24 are therefore launching a petition for an independent ORF-broadcasting reform. They demand sustainable financing of Austrian media businesses. The petition is entirely independent, anyone can support it. You can simply register on oe24, use a form and send the petition. The petition against the ORF compulsory tax demands the following: 

1. No ORF compulsory tax 

2. The funding of ORF quality programs through the budget. 

3. ORF must be given a public service mandate. 

4. ORF must become completely independent of political parties. 

5. Private media in Austria must be substantially supported. 

6. The Wiener Zeitung must be saved. 

Anyone who does not want to be forced to co-finance the ORF out of their own pocket now has the chance to achieve fairness with the oe24 petition. Fight back and stop the compulsory tax! Right now. Sign up at oe24.at.