Search results : 305

On 29 February 2012, the Austrian Nationalrat (national assembly) adopted the long-debated amendments to the Audiovisuelle Mediendienste-Gesetz (Audiovidual Media Services Act - AMG) and ORF-Gesetz (ORF Act - ORF-G). In the AMG, the licence restrictions for private television companies, which date back to the era when analogue frequencies were in short supply, were relaxed. The provision preventing private media companies from transmitting more than two terrestrial television channels was replaced with a rule limiting media companies to the provision of one radio channel and no more than one-third...

On 15 December 2011, the Austrian Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Administrative Court - VwGH) upheld a broadcaster’s appeal against a decision of the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian communications authority - KommAustria) and held, inter alia, that a one-off violation of the time limit applicable to an authorised satellite window programme did not breach the notification requirement laid down in Article 6 of the Privatfernsehgesetz (Private Television Act - PrTV-G). In its decision of 26 May 2008, KommAustria had ruled that, by broadcasting the entertainment programme “Amadeus Award 2008” as a...

In its decision of 25 January 2012 (KOA 11.260/11-018), the Austrian communications authority, KommAustria, concluded that various Facebook pages provided by the public service broadcaster ORF in connection with its television programmes constituted unlawful cooperation with Facebook as a social network. The ORF-Gesetz (ORF Act) prohibits ORF from offering online services in the form of social networks, including links to and other forms of cooperation with them. The case concerned a total of 62 different ORF Facebook pages. Some content was provided by commissioned producers and some directly...

On 27 December 2011, the Austrian Federal Gazette announced the 125. Bundesgesetz (125th Federal Act - MedKF-TG) enacting a Bundesverfassungsgesetz über die Transparenz von Medienkooperationen und Werbeaufträgen und Förderungen an Medieninhaber eines periodischen Mediums (Federal Constitutional Act on the transparency of media cooperation, advertising orders and support for owners of periodical media) and amending the KommAustria-Gesetz (KommAustria Act). The MedKF-TG is particularly aimed at creating greater transparency in media announcements by the government or other public bodies. To this...

On 9 February 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) issued a preliminary ruling on request of the Handelsgericht Wien (Commercial Court of Vienna) concerning the exploitation rights of the director and of the producer of a film. At national level, the case involves the director and producer of a documentary film on German war photography during WWII (“Fotos von der Front”). The two parties had concluded an agreement acknowledging their respective roles and assigning all copyright and related rights to the film producer, with the exception of certain methods of exploitation (such...