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The Bundesgesetz über den Österreichischen Rundfunk (Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) prohibits Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - ORF) from promoting illegal activities through television advertising and teleshopping. The same rule applies to private TV channels. In proceedings before the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communication Senate - BKS), a company accused ORF of violating this ban by broadcasting an advertising spot. The spot begins with images from everyday city life. A man in a suit and a crowd of onlookers see a plastic cup on the...

On 30 May 2007, the Austrian Council of Ministers forwarded a Bill to Parliament with the purpose of amending the Privatfernsehgesetz (Private Television Act), the ORF-Gesetz (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation Act) and the KommAustria-Gesetz (KommAustria Act). The purpose of the Bill is to create the legal basis for the introduction of mobile terrestrial television in Austria. The Act does not specify a preference for a particular standard, such as DVB-H or DMB. Instead, the only criterion for deciding on the selection of a standard will concern its user-friendliness (such as the prices of receivers,...

At its meeting on 26 April 2007, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS)) took decisions on two different issues relating to advertising in programmes broadcast by the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - ORF). The first concerned the broadcast of a programme on ORF 2 in which the audience’s attention was drawn to the musical event “Starnacht in Montafon” wherein the number of the ticket sales hotline was faded in on screen, and an announcement was made concerning the broadcasting of the recorded programme. The BKS ruled that this was a breach...

In two separate judgments delivered on 26 June 2007 (C-284/04 and C-369/04), the European Court of Justice ruled that the award by national regulatory authorities of licences, such as third generation mobile telecommunications licences (known as ‘UMTS’ or ‘3G’), did not constitute an economic activity within the meaning of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 (Sixth VAT Directive). The 3G technology allows the provision of Internet and multimedia services to mobile devices thanks to a greater capacity to transfer data. These references for a preliminary ruling were made in the...

In the past few weeks, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS) has had the opportunity to comment on sponsored programmes that contain commercial messages, which have been identified as advertising. On a private television station a sponsored programme was introduced following a programme announcement containing the words “TV Media, Austria’s best TV guide, hopes you will enjoy the following programme”. At the same time, an issue of the print magazine TV Media was shown with the following words on the cover: “Your best TV guide. New issue every week” and “All the top...