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Dr. Alfred Grinschgl, former Managing Director of RTR
#100 Who pays?
I was there a few years ago when Netflix was launched in Vienna. It's a very successful product, of course, especially in the U.S., somewhat less so in Europe. They offer great and not exactly cheap films and series that have a certain popularity among the audience, especially among the younger audience, who are almost sick of the same - and often repeated - fare of the public broadcasters. Amazon and a few others could also be cited here. But is that the whole television story that should please us exclusively? I mean: not at all ...
Where are the reports, information programs, discussions, documentaries, where are the feature films that are produced in historical circumstances? Television should mean more than just watching feature films and series ...
From this point of view, I do not consider the European and even more the Austrian
discussion about a digital strategy of the public media provider ORF to be fundamentally wrong, but I do consider it to be a discussion in which accents are set much too late or not at all. How long has there been talk about a new ORF law, with the possibility of being able to broadcast linear television via digital channels at any time? That you can watch whenever and wherever you want to watch a program. The debate is really bizarre. Daily newspapers are becoming television broadcasters before television, especially public television, gets close to certain digital possibilities.
You only have to look at the ORF law from 2010: The digital possibilities of the regional studios, for example, have turned out to be so hair-raisingly low, namely a maximum of 80 possibilities per week, that one grips one's head. TVthek is only allowed to run for seven days after the live broadcast under the law, not a year after or even a few months before. How's that for Amazon and YouTube? Anytime, anywhere ...
In the sense of a future chance to keep public TV stations in Austria relevant for the audience, especially for the younger audience, we should allow pretty much all digital possibilities for the ORF - and of course in the private media laws also for the private TV stations - in the ORF law, which should have been passed long ago. So that Austria can also retain its uniqueness, its special culture and way of life.
An important point in this context is also the financing of the ORF. Advertising funding is important, but in addition there should be basic funding, as is currently the case via broadcasting fees. In any case, the current financing is much better than one via the federal budget. Let's look at budget financing in Spain or the Netherlands, for example: First of all, government funding was cut significantly, and at the same time, audience ratings also became much lower.
In any case, it would be better for the future to convert the broadcasting fees into a household levy, as in Germany or Switzerland, for example. That way, everyone would really have to pay, including those fellow citizens who have cheated their way past the law, the levy could be a little smaller than it is at present ... and at the same time there would also be the chance to make parts of the household levy available either to ORF or also to private media broadcasters, according to clear criteria.
