“ORF law contradicts EU law”

“The planned new version of the ORF law in its present form is not compatible with European state aid law for a number of reasons and must therefore be notified to the European Commission in advance”, says the statement by the Association of Austrian Newspapers (VÖZ) on the ORF draft law as part of the parliamentary assessment. Accordingly, an EU complaint is due to the VÖZ “inevitable”. In addition, the association dropped the reporting of the site “orf.at at a glance” and the menu “Current” print as a newspaper on an average, eventful day. The result was an edition of more than 70 pages. This “ORF daily newspaper” was sent among others to the members of the Federal Government, the National Council, all provincial governors, the ORF management and the ORF Board of Trustees.

Stricter text restriction

Newspaper-like online offers are already prohibited under the current ORF law, which is based on an EU state aid procedure from 2010. “Otherwise there would be cross-subsidization of the press area not assigned to the ORF with broadcasting fees”, writes the VÖZ. The newspaper association is demanding a new ORF restriction to public content and online only video contributions with stricter text restrictions. The planned regulation with around 50 text contributions per day falls far short.

Among more than 4000 statements, the Association of Austrian Private Broadcasters (VÖP) also calls for extensive adaptations. The VÖP wants the ORF’s option to exceed the advertising time limits to be deleted without replacement and the advertising time in the main TV evening to be limited to 15 minutes per channel. The VÖP also advocates a maximum number of audio/video contributions on orf.at of 300 to 350 contributions per week. The online availability should be limited to a maximum of 30 days.