Media in Austria – Small Landscape, Big Influence

At the border to its large neighbour Germany lies the media landscape of Austria, a country with a population of over 8.4 million people. The linguistic and cultural prox-imity to its large neighbour has a decisive impact on the face of the Austrian media landscape. In addition to Austrian media, Austrians also use German media. They profit from the numerous public and commercial television channels they can re-ceive free-of-charge in their homes and they read German magazines. From an ownership perspective, the Austrian media market is to a large extent also ‘home-owned’. But there are also a handful of German co-owners who play a significant role. Media ownership and the reach of Austrian media can both be described as highly concentrated. There are numerous business and/or personal links between the owners of the major print titles. Thanks to the late introduction of commercial ra-dio and television, the public national broadcasting corporation enjoys a dominant position that has developed over time. Austria has a small media landscape with powerful influencers.