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Page 1 of 10 The Austrian Media Landscape
The Austrian media landscape is dominated by large companies. The public broadcaster, ORF, enjoys a nationally unchallenged position in television.
In the press sector, the two largest daily newspapers, Neue Kronenzeitung and Kurier, together reach more than half of the population. Both newspapers resort to the same holding company, which deals with all aspects of commercial business, advertising and distribution for both papers. Half of the shares of both papers belong to the same German media group, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. The weekly news magazine News (owned by Germany’s Gruner + Jahr by majority) is the largest of its kind in Europe – as regards household penetration.
These highly concentrated media markets are not regulated by a single institution but control is shared by various institutions at the federal level. Most significant is the responsibility of the Federal Chancellery, which is responsible for the federal press subsidies scheme, the licensing of private radio operators, the composition of the various boards of the public broadcaster ORF and (since 1997) culture (film and audiovisual production). Cartel legislation, however, falls within the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice, while media and communication research as well as the telecommunications sector is supervised by the Ministry of Science and Transport.
The Written Press
Daily newspapers are very popular in Austria. There are more than 3 million copies distributed every day to a population of some 8 million people. More than one million copies are circulated by the Neue Kronenzeitung alone (according to corporate information); the other two million copies are shared by 16 daily newspapers all over the country. This includes all local and regional papers.
Several waves of press concentration have hit Austria since World War II, leaving the country in early 1997 with a rather small number of papers. However, this number is stable and no major market restructuring is expected in short-term.
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