Austria
Landscape dominated by strong public broadcaster
The radio market in Austria is very much defined by a strong public sector with the stations of public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) accounting for 77% of audience share. The ORF broadcasts Hitradio Ö3 (32% of audience share), Österreich 1 (6%) and FM4 (2%) – all of which are nationwide programmes – as well as nine regional programmes (36% of audience share).
Competition from private broadcasters started in 1998 when 41 commercial stations received licenses. Today there are 83 stations broadcasting in Austria, 67 of which sell advertising. The two sales houses ORF Enterprise and RMS Austria cover more than 80% of the market.
In June 2001 “Krone Hit R@dio”, a channel by the publishing house Mediaprint, hit the airwaves in Vienna and Lower Austria, as well as in the regions Burgenland, Steiermark, Upper Austria and Salzburg with “the best songs of all time”. KRONEHIT went on to become the first channel to receive a national private radio frequency.
Adspend
Radio remains a popular medium for advertisers with the share of adspend on radio accounting for 6,6%. TV accounts for 24,2% of adspend and press takes a very substantial 56,6% of total media adspend. As in most European markets, 2009 has seen above-average losses of radio expenditure. According to Media Focus Research gross radio adspend was at -3,3% in 2009 in a year-on-year comparison.
Investing most significantly in radio were the tourism industry, textiles / clothing, drinks, energy, home and garden and trade and shipping. Major radio advertisers in 2009 were XXXLutz, Österreichische Lotterien, the retailers Billa, Merkur and Spar as well as Porsche Austria (Audi, Porsche, VW).
Digital radio
A recent decision by Germany, taken in summer 2009, not to invest further in developing DAB radio has inevitably had effects across Europe and notably among neighbouring countries such as Austria. The German decision has been discussed in Austria, but no further steps have been publicly announced thus far.
The Digital Platform Austria which includes a number of experts was launched in 2002 by the Federal Chancellor of Austria with the aim of promoting digitisation in Austria and meeting international standards in media technology. The frequency planning for a nationwide DAB network has already been completed, but thus far there is no great interest by radio stations to broadcast their programs using DAB. As is the case in many markets, the ample analogue offer may be one of the things keeping listeners away from DAB.
Internet radio in turn has become more and more important in Austria. All 12 public stations and the majority of the big private stations are streaming their stations via the Internet.
The private website www.radio.at (an Internet radio index) lists more than 130 Austrian Internet radio channels. Some Austrian stations stream several channels with different genres and it is possible to book advertising on simulcast Internet radios and web-only stations.
Listening
Total radio consumption (in minutes per day) is slowly declining with a marked difference among age groups. Looking at the development from 2000 and 2009 among the total population 10+ years radio listening in minutes has seen a drop of -6,2%.
Among people 60+ years listening has increased by 13,3% (Source: RADIOTEST, GfK, base Austria, Mo-Su, daily radio listening minutes 2009 vs. 2000).
Audience measurement
In Austria it is still the RADIOTEST which measures radio audiences using the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) method and there are currently no plans to move toward passive electronic measurement methods. Respondents are chosen by Address-Random (using Herold CD phone directory with registered fixed line and mobile numbers). Since 2008 as part of the RADIOTEST 14-49 year old people are also chosen by Random Digit Dialing (RDD). RDD generates mobile telephone numbers at random (to find 14-49 year old people who are not registered with any telephone number in the phone directory) – this method increased the accessibility of 14-49 year old people.
Since 1995 the RADIOTEST is merged with the Austrian „Media-Analyse“ (media analysis) which allows for intermedia media planning.
Promoting the medium radio
There’s a yearly creative competition called “radio-aktiv” which in 2009 was held for the third time and is organised by Clemens Marx Productions, ORF Enterprise, RMS and the Creative Club Austria (CCA). In 2009 the competition focused on the creation of a promotional campaign for the medium radio entitled Werbe Wunder Radio (“radio, the advertising miracle”). |
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This section contains more specific information on the market; including overviews of the market players, adspend, media mix, household equipment, pricing policies, seasonality indexes, legislation concerning advertising placement, as well as audience measurement technical factors.
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