In 2020, thirteen paid-for dailies are available to Austrian citizens, which is three less than ten years ago (Grünangerl & Trappel, 2011). Two regional newspapers with a long tradition closed for economic reasons (Salzburger Volkszeitung and Neue Kärntner Tageszeitung, both in 2014) as well as the national newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt (in 2016). All of the remaining papers are morning dailies – six of them national and seven regional. The national dailies are all based in Vienna, but they all offer regional editions broadly available all over Austria (ÖAK, 2018). Furthermore, 231 non-daily papers are available (free-of-charge and paid for; see also ÖAK, 2018).
Free-of-charge dailies have become a cornerstone of Austria’s newspaper market; however, their role continues to be significant only in the urban areas in eastern Austria (Heute, circulation: 568,769). In addition, Moser Holding runs a small-scale free-of-charge format in Western Austria (Tiroler Tageszeitung Kompakt, circulation: 12,388). Seven daily newspapers also offer Sunday editions. Some of the latter show a circulation higher than their weekday editions (for instance, Kronenzeitung Sonntag with 1,324,220, Kurier am Sonntag with 322,032 or Die Presse am Sonntag with 84,202). Newspaper sales in Austria are still mainly based on subscription (41–96% compared with 1–9% on single-copy sales; see also Table 1). Mediaprint continues to dominate newspaper distribution nationwide, and other national newspapers have started cooperations in order to compete with Mediaprint in the eastern regions of Austria (Horizont, 2000). With the entry in the market of the new daily newspaper Österreich in 2006, Verlagsgruppe News began to expand its own distribution network as well. All Austrian daily newspapers developed an e-paper solution within the last decade, although Austrian newspaper users remain loyal to print media: pure e-paper subscription reaches 1–17 per cent of the print circulation (lowest: Österreich, highest: Die Presse; see also Table 1). While at the time of the 2010 MDM report all Austrian newspapers had free online editions, many switched to paywall solutions since then (e.g., Salzburger Nachrichten, Kleine Zeitung, Die Presse).
[supsystic-tables id=2]
In 2018, 98 per cent of all Austrian households were equipped with television, 37 per cent with an Internet-connected television device or smart-TV (ORF Medienforschung, 2020a). In all, 186 free television channels are currently licensed in Austria: five of them delivered by the public service provider ORF and three of them running under a non-commercial licence (RTR, 2020b; Mavise, 2020). The switch-over to digital terrestrial broadcasting was completed in 2010 (Grünangerl & Trappel, 2011). Until now, only 5 per cent of all television households exclusively use digital terrestrial programmes; 56 per cent are equipped with digital satellite devices and 39 per cent with digital cable devices (ORF Medienforschung, 2020d). In total, of 124 radio licences registered in the Austrian radio market, 12 are supplied by the public service provider ORF and 14 under a non-commercial licence (RTR, 2020a). The availability of radio channels differs significantly on a regional level.
In 2010, ORF was the only platform provider for on-demand television and radio content available online. Until 2020, all national private channels and non-commercial television channels developed their own live-streaming and online archive services. In addition, some news providers from other media sectors, such as print or online, developed online video formats (e.g., krone.tv and oe24.tv) as part of their multimedia strategy.
Despite geographical barriers caused by Austria’s topography, Internet availability is high and increasing: as of 2019, Internet connection was technically available to 90 per cent of the Austrian population, and 74 per cent used it almost daily, compared with only 2 per cent of non-Internet-users (ORF Medienforschung, 2020a; ORF Medienforschung, 2020b). Moreover, in 2019, about 72 per cent of Austrian households were equipped with fixed broadband connections (digital subscriber line, cable, optic fibre) and 68 per cent with mobile broadband connections (Statistik Austria, 2020). The distribution differs regionally, still on a high level, between the lowest share in Carinthia (84%) and the highest in Vienna (90%) and Vorarlberg (91%) (Eurostat Statistical Yearbook, 2019).
