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On 27 September 2011, the Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) decided that the provisions of the ORF-Act in § 28 section 6 to 10 about enfranchised voters concerning the choice of the ORF-Audience-Council are unconstitutional and therefore must be repealed. In the opinion of the VfGH, the provisions in § 28 section 6 to 10 of the ORF-Act do not fulfill the requirements for the determination of laws. Article 18 of the Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) requires that laws have a content by which the conduct of the authorities is determined in advance. This requirement also applies to the statutory...

According to media reports, Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian public service broadcaster - ORF) and the Austrian competition authority agreed a compromise on 6 September 2011 in relation to ORF’s culture and information channel (ORF III), and withdrew their respective objections filed with the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS) against a decision of the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian Communications Authority - KommAustria) of 18 May 2011 (see IRIS 2011-8/12). Under the KommAustria decision, which has therefore entered into force, ORF is prohibited from advertising...

As is now public knowledge, the Austrian Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS) wrote to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) on 6 July 2011, withdrawing its reference for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the Television Without Frontiers Directive (89/552/EEC) after the Publikumsrat (Viewers’ Council) of Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian public service broadcaster - ORF) had, in turn, withdrawn the complaint it had filed with the BKS against ORF. The original case before the BKS concerned the depiction of a couple dancing from the left to the centre...

The Swiss Government has concluded another agreement on cinematographic cooperation with Germany and Austria. The aim is to facilitate international co-productions and promote the circulation and exploitation of films from any of the contracting States, and it came into force on 23 June 2011. It is the first trilateral agreement Switzerland has concluded in the field of cinematographic cooperation, and it replaces the bilateral agreements concluded with Germany in 1984 and with Austria in 1990. The new agreement on cinematographic cooperation applies to films intended mainly to be shown in cinema...

The Austrian media sector is currently discussing the plan of Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - ORF) to launch a new information and culture channel. On 18 May 2011, as part of a prior evaluation, the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian Communications Authority - KommAustria) conditionally approved the broadcast of the ORF special interest channel, after which the Austrian competition authority intervened and criticised what it considered to be the inadequacy of the conditions laid down. For the approval of a new special interest channel, Article 4c of the ORF-Gesetz...