DOne of the most important figures in Austrian politics this summer was that everyone publicly stated that they should have nothing to do with politics, let alone those related to party politics. It is the position of “General ORF”, that is, the general manager and the only general manager (male or female) of Austrian Public Broadcasting.The decision will be made on August 10 by the foundation council, which is the steering committee of political and social groups Open reading frame.
Anyone sitting there leads more than 3,000 employees with a budget of approximately 1 billion euros. This alone shows the importance of this personnel decision. Politically, this is of course mainly about ORF still dominating in classic TV and radio clips. Every third of the people on TV will switch to one of the ORF channels. In the first half of 2021, this proportion even reached 35.6%, which is a few percentage points higher, which can be attributed to the broadcast of the European Football Championship in which Austria participated.All other companies’ share is well below 5%, whether private broadcasters like it or not RTL, Vox, Servus TV, Puls4, ATV, Pro Sieben, Sat.1 and many other special interest channels or German public broadcasters, which are also part of the Austrian portfolio, of which ZDF is even the most powerful “rest”. In broadcasting, ORF is even ahead of almost three-quarters of the audience.
Rabetz still wants to be re-elected
Alexander Wrabetz has served as the head of the agency for 14 years, and he wants to extend another term. That will be the fourth, no one has been at the top of ORF for so long. But there are more applicants, 14 registered before the deadline last week. In theory, the board of directors can nominate more by the middle of this week. The two most famous of them are already active in ORF management in the commercial and Austrian media sectors, Lisa Totzauer and Roland Weißmann.
Formally, all decision makers put the cards close to their chests. Politicians and government employees refer to the board of directors, and the board of directors refers to the necessary objective review of concepts and personality profiles. Applicants emphasized that they were not campaigning, but vigorously promoted themselves in multiple interviews and “leaked” papers. ORF reporters, with one exception in particular, have kept a low profile in the past few weeks. If someone makes any suggestions behind the scenes, they certainly don’t want to be recognized in any way.
Despite being rash and cautious, everyone thinks they know who Sebastian Kurtz likes best, that is, Weissman.Because most of the members of the Christian Democratic Party led by Kurz are on the board of directors vice president Including, Weisman will be the most popular. Of course, if this location is likely to become a stumbling block, this is not the first time in history.
