Austrian complaint against ORF.
The complaint aims to push the Austrian Broadcasting Foundation to transmit its programs in DAB+.
- One million people already regularly listen to their radio programs on DAB+.
- ORF should make its program available on DAB+.
- To this end, a popular complaint has been lodged with KommAustria.
ORF should make its three radio stations available in DAB+, which is why committed Austrians have signed a popular complaint, which has now been lodged with KommAustria.
The popular complaint concerns ORF's supply mandate under § 3 para. 1 no. 1 ORF-G in conjunction with § 3 para. 4 ORF-G and considers that it has been violated by the omission of the broadcasting of its stations on DAB+ as digital terrestrial radio. The complaint is directed against ORF and General Manager Mag. Roland Weißmann. The necessary signatures have been submitted to the law firm Krüger/Bauer Rechtsanwälte GmbH. The law firm's submission to KommAustria took place on June 06.
Why DAB+ is the future of radio
DAB+ stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting and is the new European standard for radio. While many other European countries are already jointly focusing on the large-scale implementation of DAB+, Austria has not yet moved in this direction.
Many European countries, such as Switzerland, Norway and above all Germany, are making great strides towards digital radio broadcasting. In addition, DAB+-compatible car radios have been mandatory in new cars throughout the EU since the beginning of 2021. In Austria alone, there have been almost half a million new car registrations with DAB+-compatible radios since then [...] A Europe of diversity, linked by uniform or unified structures such as DAB+ in the radio sector, cannot be bypassed by Austria, and therefore not by ORF either.
Roman Gerner, President of the Digitalradio Österreich association