44 - What changes with the Digital Amendment?

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A contribution by Eva Reiter-Kluger, head of ORF ON.

It is often short moments in everyday life that make the dimension of major changes in the world particularly tangible. I had such a moment the last time my almost six-year-old son was lying sick on the couch with a tablet and this dialog took place.
Son: "I can't find anything I like to look at."
Me: "That can't be true, when I was your age none of that existed, I didn't have Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+."
Son: "Really, did you only watch YouTube then?"
There is probably no better way to sum up who ORF is competing with in the here and now. When TVthek went online almost 15 years ago, the idea of "watching TV when and where you want" was still in its infancy. Today, it is a matter of course to be able to choose the place, time and content in streaming. Many people have one or even several subscriptions. Many households no longer have a TV set at all; ORF content is easily consumed on laptops, tablets and cell phones. ORF is now facing a new start with its ORF ON streaming platform. We want to be an "ORF for everyone" and for us that means: we have to offer all Austrians a new, even better streaming experience - in terms of content and technology - live and on demand. That is the goal of ORF ON. The official launch and thus the final replacement of TVthek in May 2024 is just the beginning, updates will follow continuously - that can already be promised at this point. Thanks to the new legal possibilities, TVthek is finally allowed to grow up and is now entering into tough competition as ORF ON, not only with other public media libraries, but also with international streaming services. Significantly longer provision times make this turnaround possible. For our audience, this means that more content is (finally) available for longer.
Our vision for ORF ON for the coming years is clear: we want to offer our audience a flagship ORF store with the new video platform and invite all Austrians to come in, be surprised and hopefully stay longer than planned. We are also working on this every day: To also positively surprise new customers. The motto: Are you in the mood for series, films, documentaries, information, comedy, sport and much more? We have the right, freely available offer with Austrian charm. Our audience should be able to see this for themselves every day. Before people turn their eyes and clicks to Netflix & Co., we want to convince them of ORF ON and use the opportunity to win people over with our content in the long term.
Whether young, young at heart, dynamic, vital, multi-layered and in-depth, profound, differentiated, exciting and funny: the range of content on our platform will be just as diverse as our audience. From the "Biestern" to the "Bergdoktor", from "Universum" to "ZIB"-Wissen, from "Willkommen Österreich" to "Gute Nacht Österreich", from "Kasperl" to "ZIB Zack Mini", from cult series such as "Kottan ermittelt" or "Kaisermühlen-Blues" to completely new formats that are only just emerging according to the motto "Beyond TV" - we want to appeal to our users' heads, stomachs and especially their hearts.
But even if content is the number one guarantee of success for our platform, technical stability, optimal usability and modern design are just as crucial for success. The comparison with other streaming services, which have many times more resources at their disposal, especially in terms of technical development, often doesn't make it easy for us. But with the launch of ORF ON, we are taking the next big step into the streaming future, knowing full well that it is a never-ending process: optimized recommendations and personalization, notifications, log-ins with profiles for the whole family, the intelligent use of AI - these and more features will take some patience, but our team is constantly working on these optimizations.
In the most positive sense of all, we stand out from other streaming services with content from Austria in particular and want to make younger people curious about ORF again. Originals and classics from Austria that are inevitably associated with the country and its people, that convey its culture and spirit - that is our mission. ORF ON offers this for everyone, freely available and accessible. With this in mind, we want to expand our digital reach.It is our public service mission to continue to reach all population and age groups on our own strong platform with relevant and entertaining content and to establish and live a new culture of transformation and experimentation there. By the way, if you're wondering what my son's reaction was when I told him that there was no YouTube when I was six years old: he asked me with a grin: "Mom, were there still dinosaurs?".
The new ORF online service
The news.ORF.at and sport.ORF.at websites will be comprehensively updated at the start of 2024 and enriched with significantly more video content. The audio platform ORF Sound bundles the best of Ö1, Ö3, FM4 and the nine ORF regional radio stations in one app and prepares all content specifically for on-demand use. The multimedia digital service ORF Topos offers exclusive stories from the fields of culture, science, religion and society and sees itself as a field of experimentation for new digital formats and narrative styles.
The new ORF ON streaming platform makes public video content available on demand for much longer and offers a rich content offering of current ORF productions, archive treasures and live TV streams, which is supplemented by exclusive online-only content.
With its own streaming offer for children in the form of a Kids Channel and a corresponding Kids Media Library, ORF is creating an ad-free and violence-free program environment for the Alpha generation. The digital news formats "ZIB Instagram" and "ZIB TikTok" offer public service information for young people on social media. New content offerings for Gen Z are being developed.
The following also applies for 2024: The in-house productions of the culture and information channel ORF III will be expanded in 2024. The program offerings for the country's indigenous ethnic groups will also be further expanded. In order to make public service programming more accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments, ORF is continuously expanding accessibility with subtitles, Austrian sign language and audio description.

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