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On the proposal of its Director General, the Foundation Board of ORF (Austrian public service broadcaster) has decided to increase the ORF licence fee. The decision was adopted by 15 votes to 13, with two abstentions. On 1 June 2008, the ORF licence fee will rise by 9.4%; each household will have to pay EUR 15.10 per month to receive television channels. Households only wishing to receive radio programmes will pay EUR 4.20 per month. The increase will provide ORF with around EUR 41 million of additional annual income from 2009. The fee must be paid by everyone in Austria who can receive ORF radio...

In the last few years, the analogue transmission of television signals has been switched off in Austrian urban areas, beginning with the west of the country. On 22 October 2007, the broadcaster Österreichische Rundfunksender GmbH & Co KG ceased analogue terrestrial transmissions in the eastern Austrian urban areas, and channels there can now only be received in digital form. This brought the first wave of digital terrestrial television to an end, and 70 per cent of Austrian households can now receive DVB-T. In the rural areas, the analogue signal will only continue to be transmitted until DVB-T...

In its Judgment of 18 October 2007 in case C-195/06, KommAustria v. ORF, the Court of Justice laid down a number of criteria for the purposes of determining whether a prize game organised during the broadcast of a television programme can be classified as “teleshopping” or “television advertising” within the meaning of Article 1 of the Directive 89/552/EEC (Television Without Frontiers Directive). The present judgment originates from a reference for a preliminary ruling submitted by the Austrian Bundeskommunikationssenat in the proceedings between the Austrian Communications Authority, KommAustria...

The communications authority in Austria (KommAustria) has published a fresh version of the digitisation plan from 2003 and 2005 developed jointly by the “Digital Platform Austria” Association and the Ministry for Women, Media and the Public Service. In the new plan, emphasis is placed upon making provision for DVB-T transmission for local and regional programme producers. With the developing digitisation of analogue frequencies over the last few years, viewers have drifted towards receiving the digital version of TV broadcasts. The producers of regional TV programmes, all of whom transmit in analogue,...

In May 2003, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communication Senate - BKS) decided that ORF had committed several breaches of advertising rules enshrined in the ORF-Gesetz (ORF Act) in the TV programme "Starmania" broadcast on 17 January 2003 (see IRIS 2003-7: 6). Part of this decision was then overturned by the Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Administrative Court - VwGH) at ORF's request (see IRIS 2006-7: 8). The BKS issued a new ruling on 18 June 2007. As in the original proceedings, the BKS ruled that ORF had repeatedly shown crisp packets, mineral water bottles, a one-metre high tube bearing the...