If no new regulation is fixed by the end of the first quarter of 2023 at the latest, the ORF is confronted with “disadvantages”. Several board members also emphasized this after a meeting of the top ORF committee on Thursday.
The “streaming gap” will be history by 2024. In mid-July, the Constitutional Court ruled that the exclusive use of ORF programs on the Internet, which had previously been free of charge, was unconstitutional. The ORF law must be amended by the end of 2023. However, it is not clear how this is done. Media Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) has not yet committed herself.
Is there a household fee?
ORF lawyers interpret the VfGH result in such a way that funding from the federal budget or a login solution to access ORF content would not correspond to the verdict. The required independence of the ORF, but also the easy access to the ORF program stand in the way of these possibilities. This essentially leaves a household tax or an extended equipment tax.
The spokesman for various “Friends’ Groups” on the ORF Board of Trustees and Chairman Lothar Lockl also urged politicians to find a quick solution. “All of us on the Board of Trustees are concerned that the ORF stands on secure financial footing. The most important leg is the fee financing,” says Thomas Zach, head of the ÖVP “Friends’ Circle”. Around two thirds of ORF sales come from GIS income.
Heinz Lederer, head of the SPÖ “Friends’ Group”, said that the legislature must recognize the “dramatic” nature of the situation. A necessary transformation process of the ORF cannot exist without economic security.
Source: Nachrichten
