ORF Radio Slips Lower

Michael Hedges July 28, 2005

Austria’s public broadcaster holds the highest radio market share in Europe. They’re tough, competitive and slipping.

Conventional wisdom maintains that Europe’s public radio broadcasters have 40% to 50% aggregated market share in their individual countries. Some are lower and some much higher. Austria’s Österreichischen Rundfunks (ORF) radio channels reached market shares of 80% and have, generally, withstood the launch of private, commercial radio, now in its tenth year. Austria was the last European country to license private radio broadcasting.

The recent Radiotest radio audience survey for the first half of 2005, released July 21st, shows how far private radio has gained – not much – and how far ORF has slipped – not much.

The benchmark in Austria for ORF has long been the Ö3 channel – Hitradio – suspected of being the most vulnerable as most private radio programming is oriented to pop, rock and contemporary music. And, too, it has been the most formidable channel in Austria, with daily reach near 40% in the now distant past.

In the hotly contested Vienna market, for example, Ö3 still leads with a 31% daily reach, persons 10 years and older, exactly equal to the result of the 2004 survey. None of the top ten channels changed position. Second place Ö2Radio Wein jumped to 19.% from 16.8%. Ö1 increased to 13.9% from 13.5%. Radio Arabella, 4th place, increased to 11.6% from 11%. Ö2 Radio Niederösterreich increased to 9.7% from 9.2%. NRJ fell very slightly to 8.5%, 6th place, from 8.6%. FM4, the biggest loss for ORF, dropped to 5.1% from 5.7%. Supermix 88.6 bumped up to 4.9% from 4.6%. Kronehit, which recently gained the first private, commercial national license in Austria, increased to 4.8% from 3.5%.

ORF’s total daily reach in Vienna increased to 67.7% from 65.5% in the first half 2004, the lowest daily reach for ORF in any Austrian province. In Niederösterreich (Lower Austria, the province surrounding Vienna), Oberösterreich (Upper Austria), Tirol, Carinthia and Salzberg OFR’s total daily reach fell. Ö3 kept the same daily reach in Vienna but dropped in every other province, save Voralberg, in the far west of the country bordering Switzerland. Regional Ö2 channels generally gained in their respective provinces though losses in Lower and Upper Austria and Steiermark point to competition from private broadcasters in Austria’s largest cities.

Eyes are certainly on Kronehit, now with national reach, save a few transmitters. In the whole of Austria the station increased its daily reach to 4.7% from 4.3% and increased in Vienna and Lower Austria. But regional private stations in Burgenland, Party FM, and the new Antenne Wels in Upper Austria affected Kronehits’ reach in those provinces.

Radio Arabella, targeting Vienna, is the leader among private stations with a daily reach of 11.6%, up from 11.0%. Supermix 88.6 and Antenne Wein also gained while NRJ slipped slightly to 8.5% daily reach from 8.6%.

In Tirol three new private stations helped themselves to listeners, largely from ORF, more evidence that more localized radio channels, whether from private or public broadcasters, hold the main advantage.