ORF Public Value

PUBLIC VALUE

PUBLIC VALUE

PUBLIC SERVICE MANDATE

C H E C K S & B A L A N C E S : P U B L I C VA L U E A N D Q UA L I T Y C O N T R O L AT O R F

O R F – T H E AU S T R I A N B R OA D C A S T I N G CO R P O R AT I O N

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he Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) is Austria’s largest media provider, operating four national television and twelve radio channels, as well as a comprehensive range of websites.

ORF is formally a foundation under public law and as such must fulfill a number of duties and mandates laid down in the ORF Act. Being a public service radio and television company, ORF is not profit-oriented, and invests all revenue – two-thirds of which comes from radio- and TV-licence fees, the rest from advertising and other income – directly into the programs and services it provides to its ORF audiences.

The ORF’s main headquarters and studios are located in Vienna, and the company also operates regional studios in all nine Federal Provinces and maintains a worldwide network of correspondents who contribute to its varied range of programs in all three media.

TV-channels ORF 1 and ORF 2 broadcast a rich variety of programs consisting of current news, in-depth information, documentaries, TV-magazines, reports, talk-shows and other shows, movies, and TV-series.

The main target group of ORF 1 are rather young, cosmopolitan, and urban audiences. Its repertoire includes children's programs - free of advertisement and violence - and major sports events, as well as contemporary films and series from Austria and the rest of the world, shows and comedies.

ORF 2, on the other hand, addresses a more mature and traditional audience, broadcasting in-depth information, documentaries, and debates. High culture, religion, and science also feature prominently in ORF 2 programs.

ORF III is a special-interest channel for information and culture.

ORF Sport + is a special-interest channel for sports.

Radio channels Ö1 is a special-interest channel specializing in culture and information, placing

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an equally strong focus on science, religion, and debates on socio-political issues. It is free of advertisement and counts amongst Europe’s most successful public-service radio channels. Ö3 is the mainstream radio channel of ORF, accompanying Austrian radio audiences throughout the day with a rich mixture of music, information, comedy, and services. The channel has a loyal family of listeners who regularly join in its active participation campaigns for humanitarian and social projects.

FM4 focuses on contemporary youth a nd popular culture outside the mainstream, and broadcasts in both German and English.

The regional studios The ORF’s regional studios in the nine Austrian Federal Provinces produce their own radio programs around the clock, as well as half an hour of regional TV-news every day, which are broadcast in the local windows of ORF 2. Off the air, the regional studios have established themselves as an important vehicle for local culture in their respective Federal Province. orf.at The ORF’s websites post the country's most coveted online news, also providing in-depth background information and a comprehensive set of services. Moreover, the ORF-TVthek features a 7-day catchup of most television formats, allowing viewers to watch the programs they missed online. ORF Sound offers 24/7 live streams, 7-day on-demand players and podcasts from all ORF radio stations for online use.

ORF International Most of the television programs of ORF 2 are also available throughout the continent via the Astra digital satellite at ORF 2 EUROPE, conceived as a service for Austrians abroad and for all viewers in Europe interested in Austria and its culture.

In cooperation with the public service broadcasters of Germany and Switzerland (ARD, ZDF, SRG SRF), ORF also operates the special-interest channel 3Sat, which

specializes in culture and science.

Moreover, ORF is an active partner of the German-French ARTE culture channel and contributes Austrian programs to the Bavarian education channel Bayern Alpha (Germany).

Facts & Figures Starting 2024, ORF will receive a household tax (€ 15,30,--) instead of licence fees. In 2022, 3.264 permanent employees and 491 freelancers worked for the ORF. Market Leadership ORF is the leading multimedia platform in Austria and one of Europe’s most successful public service broadcasters with an audience of millions. ORF is the undisputed Austrian market leader in television, radio and online.

ORF-Television The entire ORF television-fleet (also including ORF III and ORF Sport +) reached a market share of 34,6% in 2022.

ORF-Radio Every day, 58,2% of Austrians are tuning in to the ORF-radio-programs (4,6 million listeners) and in 2022, the ORF radiofleet reached 69% market share.

ORF-Online 134,6 million visits per month in 2022 make ORF.at by far the most successful Austrian news-website. ORF-TVthek is the most successful video on demand platform in Austria with 12,2 million visits per month.

Management Director General: Roland Weißmann Commercial Director: Eva Schindlauer TV Director: Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz Radio Director: Ingrid Thurnher Technical Director: Harald Kräuter

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oogle and Facebook, X and TikTok, YouTube and Instagram: People are flooded with news and entertainment. Within a few years social media has eroded the role of editorial media in print and TV as gatekeeper for information. More than ever selection is crucial.

But who can you trust and why? Is there any difference between commercial and Public Service Media?

ORF and its publicly funded partners in Europe are challenged every day. They must face enormous competition on the market. They must defend their independence from governments and the business sector and most important: they must create distinctive quality, beneficial for citizens, society and democracy. Public funding, public mission, and public control: This is the basis for creating Public Value. But how does it work? Are there any criteria for Public Value? How can the audiences, media users and license fee payers recognize Public Value?

First: Public Service Media have special obligations. They follow a legal mandate that defines their mission and role in society. Their public funding makes them accountable. They must prove whether and how they fulfill their public service mandate in their media production in TV, radio and online. For PSM media quality is more than a confession, more than a promise. This is why checks & balances are crucial. Without prove quality is just a word. Quality Control is the fundament for credibility and accountability.

ORF‘s quality assurance system is an efficient proof that quality can be checked by facts and figures, by analysis and arguments, by self-reflection and transparency. Several elements document, evaluate and safeguard media production in TV, radio and online. Through audience and expert panels, scientific analysis, representative surveys and an inside perspective into the practice of daily journalistic work. This makes ORF‘s quality assurance system – and experts agree on this – a benchmark for Europe.

The focus is on fulfilling the core public

The Public Value Report documents the fulfillment of ORF‘s public service mandate.

service mandate defined in the ORF Act. As a „broadcaster of society“ ORF addresses its audience not exclusively as media consumers, but as citizens, creating a socially relevant and democratic significance. Media users should be able to rely on the information they receive. Media quality must not be an empty slogan.

In this article we explain the extensive and multi-faceted approach ORF has

implemented to check its media quality, what kind of internal and external control measures are ensuring that quality does not remain a theoretical confession.

Public Value at work As early as 2007 – inspired by the BBC report „Building Public Value“ – ORF established an independent, companywide, multifunctional department for the

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PUBLIC VALUE

QUALITY CONTROL

„DialogForum“ on „Generation Z“: Young people discussed their expectations of the ORF.

definition, documentation, and evaluation as well as the internal and external communication of its public service. Even then, a threatening crisis of legitimacy was looming: After commercial media had successfully established themselves on the TV market, they began – throughout Europe and consistently to this day – to fight the public funding of PSM media as a „distortion of competition“. Online print media and (public) media finally became direct competitors. In consequence, PSM had – more than ever – legitimate public funding and define and communicate its Public Value. The days of being the undisputed leading medium, recognized, accepted, and financed by everyone as a matter of course, were obviously over.

Facing the changes in the media industry led to a „wake up-call“ for a media segment that had been accustomed to a comfortable monopoly position throughout Europe, at least in Austria, for decades.

However, the disruptive developments of the ongoing digital transformation, led to an overwhelming dominance of a handful of internationally operating data-corporations in the scale of international markets. „Public value“ thereby provides both a justification for public funding and a meaningful definition of distinguishable, distinctive media quality.

Numerous public service broadcasters have therefore defined their Public Value in their own way, and the European

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Broadcasting Union has published a declaration of its core values („Empowering Society“) and made its Public Value visible in a variety of initiatives („Contribution for Society“). Public Value-strategies have been established in numerous countries, especially in Germany and Switzerland. In the Belgian public broadcaster, a „Public Value Director“ controls the corporate strategy. The aim is to legitimize public funding and ensure that the public service fulfills its legal obligations, but above all to make society and its own employees aware of what constitutes Public Service Media quality.

Since the BBC report in 2004 the general situation has worsened significantly, due to the international media market.

The power of the „Big 5“ digital data corporations is overwhelming and has changed the world of media consumption. A generation of young media users, the majority of whom do not seek access to editorial media but rely on their social media feed, is undermining the ratings of traditional media and undermining the public sphere of democratic societies.

As “Cambridge Analytica” has demonstrated, personalized communication based on algorithmic data analysis enables companies to manipulate election campaigns and thus to influence relevant sociopolitical decisions and processes.

Digital transformation, which was supposed to be utopian, thus develops

dystopian features. Media economics and media use, in conjunction with polarization and populism, act like binary warfare agents that are capable of gradually relativizing, and in the worst-case disintegrating the social, societal, and communicative structures that have been established in post-war Europe. It is precisely for this reason that Public Service Media are called upon. Their functional mandate obliges them to pursue a „Public Value“ oriented toward the common good.

Since 2007, ORF’s Public Value Department has established an extensive range of tasks that serve both to legitimize public financing and to communicate externally about the distinctive quality of ORF, its value and benefits, and last but not least to motivate employees in an inspiring way. On the basis of the existing legal foundations and regulations, Public Value is defined by five quality definitions. They describe an „Individual Value“ for media users, who are addressed not only as consumers but also as citizens; a „Social Value“ that summarizes ORF‘s democratic functions; an „International Value“, addressing European and international cooperation, as well as a „Nation Value“ that defines its services in the context of Austrian, regional identity, finally a „Corporate Value“ that specifies the requirements for competence, transparency, and innovation.

From this, different performance criteria are derived in each case, such as trustworthiness, diversity, cultural and educational mission, responsibility, proximity to citizens, orientation, quality entertainment, etc.

This structure has been implemented into ORF’s quality control system and inspired the creation of the „Public Network Value“ of ORF, which – with scientific support – defines the fundamental performance characteristics of Public Service Media in the digital age.

More than a confession In recent years ORF has expanded its quality assurance system to become one of the most comprehensive and in-depth models in Europe. It has established a

process that documents, evaluates, and controls media quality – as the equivalent of market share and ratings – and thus creates the basis for optimizing media quality. In addition to the programme structure analyses and the annual representative survey – in the responsibility of ORF media research department – the fulfillment of the public service mission is continuously documented and monitored by Public Value department: Every year, the „Public Value Report“ documents ORF‘s media production in TV/radio/online and off air, the regional studios and international cooperations (3sat and ARTE) based on examples and reports by ORF employees and numerous facts and figures. In each case, different aspects are emphasized, addressing different stakeholders, for example in the „55“ report, the „Value for Money“ of ORF is demonstrated (55 cents being the license fee per day and household, presenting one value-for-money-benefit for each cent), the ORF cultural mission was documented by an annual calendar of art and culture enriched by numerous examples from ORF‘s programming. 2021 it focused on digital transformation, 2022 the report „Quality Check“ used artificial intelligence showcasing best practice example of ORF’s media production.

Reflection and expectation of the au-

Promoting the participation of young people: „Zukunftsdialog - next generation“.

dience are the focus of ORF’s “Audience Panels”. Representatively selected media users evaluate ORF‘s media programs in the categories of information/science&education, sports, culture&religion and entertainment. ORF journalists are included to face criticism and provide information about everyday editorial work.

In ORF’s “Expert Panels” , which are held annually, scientists and media experts work together with ORF broadcasting managers to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of ORF‘s media offerings.

How these demands are implemented in media production is the focus of ORF’s „Quality Profiles“. Specific performance criteria are defined based on the ORF law as well as ORF regulations, such as the editorial guidelines, the social media guidelines, the code of conduct and the editorial statutes. Whether these are actually realized is evaluated in annual audience focus groups conducted by an external scientific institute.

The „Public Value Annual Studies“ looks into the future. In cooperation with the public broadcasters ZDF, ARD and EBU, scientists analyze expected challenges to quality media production, most recently on the topics of „digital transformation“ and „entertainment”.

To supplement the quality assurance process, a „Quality Check“ has been

established for the first time in 2022. It serves to implement the results of the quality control in the subsequent media production. For this reason, a module was developed that is aimed directly at the journalists and thus creates the greatest possible practical relevance. In workshops lasting several hours, journalists from programme-producing departments discuss the results of quality assurance and develop suggestions for programme improvement.

Nothing stays the same At ORF, however, Public Value is not just about quality control. Its strategic perspective is consciously directed toward the future. For this reason, numerous initiatives have been created that are dedicated to demonstrate the competence of ORF, when fulfilling its public service mission.

“Public Value TEXTE – Public Service Quality in Discourse” is a series of publications with over 200 articles by Austrian and international scholars and scientists, covering a wide range of topics in the media world: Issues #25: „Why Independence matters“ and #26: „Between the fourth estate and the fifth power“ focus on the independence of Public Service Media and the digital transformation.

In „ORF-DialogForum,“ a well established

The „female expert database“, developed with the equal opportunities officers of the ORF, increases the share of female expertise in reporting.

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PUBLIC VALUE

Public Value TV program (LIVE-stream and broadcast on ORF III), numerous guests from Austria and Europe discuss socially relevant issues of media quality, most recently with the question of how media – especially ORF – reacts to the pandemic, climate crisis, and corruption scandals, and what expectations „Generation Z“ has of ORF. „Between Fear and Awakening“ dealt with the social consequences of the war in Ukraine. In

„ORF Denkraum“: workshops for young employees.

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PROJECTS & COOPERATIONS

„Together but where to?“ the guests developed visions for the future of social cohesion. „New, Digital and...?“ featured media experts from Germany and Austria on the question of how Public Service Media can take advantage of the digital transformation.

In order to improve its relation to its stakeholder the Public Value departments organizes several workshops: In the „Future Dialogue – next generation“,

young people from all over Austria discussed what they expect from the ORF of the future. Especially in a time of digital transformation and changing media use, involving young expertise is proving to be particularly important for ORF. Promoting the participation of young people and collecting criticism and expectations were the primary goals of the event. Five small groups discussed the topics of information, entertainment and sports, culture and education, service and community in sessions lasting several hours.

The findings and demands of the participants (more diversity, greater presence on social media channels, authentic portrayal of living environments, active participation and inclusion of young people in ORF (participation council), promoting media competence through their own offerings, more discussion sessions with young people, promotion of local artists, cooperation of ORF with educational institutions, legal service for young people, etc.) are to be understood as suggestions for future media production. They have been presented by the young people to ORF management. A similar stakeholderworkshop will be organized in order to support the start of the new ORF online channel for children and young people.

Transparency and a vivid relationship with ORF’s audiences is also reflected in a multi-year cooperation between ORF Public Value and Ö3, the most popular and successful Austrian ORF radio station. Already in 2016, ORF participated in the Europe-wide EBU initiative „Generation What“, an online survey among Europe‘s young people. Thanks to the massive commitment of Ö3, Austria succeeded in becoming the country with the greatest participation of young people.

Since then, the survey initiative has been successfully repeated several times.

Public Value as prove of distinctive quality Quality is – comprehensibly – created in the eye of the beholder. This also applies to ORF. The review of public service quality – from the audience‘s point of view – is provided by daily media production.

Therefore, it is of particular importance

to explicitly communicate the value and benefit, the meaning of „Public Value“, and above all the Public Service competence of journalistic media performance to ORF employees.

ORF Public Value has therefore initiated the „ORF Denk|Raum“ – a series of discussion groups and workshops for young ORF employees – which deals with numerous current topics and challenges (such as disinformation, gaming, media perception of young audiences) In cooperation with ORF’s department for gender-equality, ORF Public Value has established a „female expert database“ with the aim of increasing the proportion of female expertise in reporting. In the meantime, this database is filled by ORF editors and serves as an information option for them in their search for suitable expertise.

The international exchange on Public Service Media is the focus of the „Public Value “D-A-CH Panel,“ in which the public value officers of ARD, ZDF, SRG and other European Public Service Broadcasters meet twice a year to discuss specific projects and cooperation.

The international dimension of Public Value is also expressed in international conferences, such as the „RIPE Conference“ in Vienna in September 2022 or the “EBU Leadership Summit” in September 2023.

ORF Public Value has been active for many years in the international association of Public Service Media, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), f.e. the international project „Empowering Society – Public Service Media in the Western Balkans“. ORF Public Value has been invited to join a core group of international experts developing measures to protect the independence of European Public Service Media. ORF Public Value joined also the jury for the „Grand Prix“ of CIRCOM, an international organization that honors the journalistic achievements of European regional studios.

As is evident in view of the impact of globally operating corporations, the international horizon is indispensable in today‘s media world. For this reason, ORF Public Value also actively participated in

Zukunft .ORF.at offers various informations about public value and the ORF.

the creation of the „Public Service Internet Manifesto,“ which calls for a stronger presence of public service media on the Internet. This international „call for action“ has since been endorsed by more than 1,300 academics worldwide (including Jürgen Habermas and Noam Chomsky).

It is obvious that successful communication can no longer be limited to print, TV, and radio. This is why ORF Public Value has created its own Public Value website years ago. At „zukunft.ORF.at,“ you can find relevant information on all projects and initiatives (mentioned here), as well as numerous facts and figures on ORF media production, plus videos, „ORF DialogForum“ debates, videos and comprehensive information on international media developments.

Public Value as a „Driver of Change” As it turns out, the approval of publicly funded media is no longer a given. It is therefore of considerable importance to argue the value and benefit of Public Service Media in an open, transparent, and citizen-oriented manner. This is why, Public Value is a self-reflective commu-

nicative and strategic discourse on the meaning and impact of PSM, directed at its stakeholders, its audiences, to all citizens, and – at the same time – at its own employees.

Obviously the current situation in media, globally and on European level, is alarming. Even though ORF is still by far the most trustworthy medium in Austria, the loss of public trust in democratic institutions, in politics and the media, triggered by various crises and uncertainties, is shocking. „Fake news“ and „filter bubbles“ spread by the unrestrained expansion of internationally operating data corporations reveal that digital transformation not only create opportunities but also significant negative effects. Credibility and competence, independence and transparency are therefore more important than ever.

Public Value is the answer for a crucial question: what role PSM fulfills for its audiences, supporting society and democracy. Therefore, Public Value is not a marketing tool, but a strategic perspective for the reform and future viability of Public Service Media, facing a most needed process of transformation and change.

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ZUKUNFT.ORF.AT