The ORF, the Austrian national public broadcaster, will receive €710 million in public funding per year, €40 million more than before. The broadcaster is funded by a combination of license fees and limited advertising revenue.
Private publishers argue that the law squishes media competition and media diversity, in a landscape that is already difficult to navigate. Print media sales are down, and many sites are having to implement a paywall.
In an accompanying letter to the protest, signed by 18 editors and directors of private newspapers on Press Freedom Day, the signatories state that the funding for ORF will “cut off any development opportunity in the future” for their papers.
“The Austrian media diversity is facing an existential threat!”, the letter reads.
In return for this funding, however, the broadcaster must follow strict rules: 70% of its content must be video reports, articles may only be 350 words long and limited to “brief news coverage appropriate to the occasion to convey essential information.” Many media experts question this restriction.
The ORF must also make management salaries and secondary income public, and programmes in its online archive will be available for much longer.
Annual household and company contributions will be going up as well. The ORF is to become “for everyone”, said director Roland Weißmann.
The bill is to be voted on in parliament in late May.
