In terms of ownership, the Austrian media system can be characterised as dual model, with a solid public service broadcaster alongside strong private media groups in the print market. This balanced approach has proven stable even after the liberalisation of the broadcasting market, in 2001, and the following rise of private TV and radio channels.

As expected, the ownership structure of the public media is relatively simple. ORF 2 and Ö1 are owned by a public foundation whose board members are determined by distributed political forces (executive federal and regional governments and proportional parliamentary representation).

Private media, on the other hand, display more complex arrangements. Most outlets are ultimately owned by families and individuals. Only Puls 4 is mostly owned by a publicly listed company, the German ProSiebenSat1 group. However, the single most important controller of this company is Silvio Berlusconi, who has majoritarian position in all companies upwards in the ownership chain.

In this context, three families stand out. Members of the Dichand family own half of Kronen Zeitung, the most read newspaper and part of the largest private media group in the country. In addition, one family member participates in the control of Heute, either by direct shareholdings (in the case of the online publication) or playing important roles in private foundations that own the printed edition.

Second, the Bronner family directly controls the quality newspaper Der Standard: 58.9% is owned by its founder and editor Oscar Bronner, 19.6% by his wife, Andrea Bronner, and 20% by his son and board member Alexander Mitteräcker. Only 1.5% of shares belong to other private shareholders.

Third, the Fellner family, a contemporarily important family in the Austrian media landscape, currently edits one of the largest free sheets and looks back to a number of economically successful media start-ups in the 1980s and 1990s. Our media sample includes Radio Austria, in which second generation family member Nikolas Fellner is the donor and economic manager of the private foundation that owns 100% of this countrywide radio network.

As in the case of the Fellners, the legal form of private foundations is used by many individual or family owners in the Austrian media business. Indeed, media ownership forms are diversifying throughout the world, and foundations have been one of these emerging models (Sjøvaag & Ohlsson, 2019). While in some countries they are a way to ensure the functioning of news media as market conditions deteriorate (see in this pilot project the cases of Denmark, Finland and Sweden) or hide actual ownership (see Hungary), in Austria they serve a triple function according to literature: a) asset protection: keeping assets, such as media companies, intact and in the control of one entity (e.g., by preventing single members from selling shares in case of inheritance or debt), b)  tax optimisation (especially in holding structures), and c) the (theoretical) benefit of very little public disclosure mandates regarding finances and beneficiaries – although the majority of news organisations choose to publish the names of private foundation beneficiaries in their imprints (Dohrau et al., 2019).

The Austrian media are also highly intermingled with non-media businesses. The biggest private bank, Raiffeisen, owns almost half of Kurier and Profil, while the beverage giant Red Bull has all shareholdings of the most relevant private TV, namely Servus TV. A Catholic private foundation is the single owner of the Styria Media Group, a traditional group that publishes the widely read Kleine Zeitung. Real estate investor René Benko controls almost 20% of Krone, Kurier and Profil by means of the holding Signa, which also has relevant participation of the construction businessman Hans Peter Haselsteiner.

Foreign ownership is also an issue in the Austrian media system. Besides ProSiebenSat1 and Berlusconi mentioned above, the German company Funke Mediengruppe owns some 25% of Krone, Kurier and Profil by means of the holding WAZ Ausland. Furthermore, the Swiss publisher Tamedia holds sizeable shares in Heute (25,5% in the print version and 51% in the online business). Finally, the majority of the shares of Servus TV is in the hands of the Thai family Yoovidhya (49% to the family company TC Agro Company and 2% directly belonging to their heir Chalerm Yoovidhya), although the current control of the channel and the entire Red Bull Media House lies in the hands of Austria’s richest entrepreneur, Dietrich Mateschitz.

As can be seen, although very intricate, media ownership relations in Austria are relatively transparent. Furthermore, the names of direct and beneficial owners of almost all media outlets are available on the website of the news organisation. The exceptions to the rule are: Servus TV, which does not indicate the participation of the family Yoovidhya in the control of the Red Bull; Radio Austria, which omits the private foundation Alpha Zehn Medien and related persons from their imprint(1); and Krone.at, which refers on their imprint only to an intermediary company of the group and links to the imprint of the newspaper, where beneficial owners can be found. All others clearly indicate who are the beneficial owners. Of course, this is due not to the mere willingness of the media companies and owners themselves, but to the Austrian media law (Mediengesetz), which in its paragraph 25 requires news media to disclose direct and beneficial owners on their websites as well as the other media-related companies in which they have participation.

In addition, most of the relevant information to assess who actually has influence in the news production is also available, such as names of managers and editors-in-chief. Figures on circulation of print media and audience of their electronic counterparts are generally disclosed by the national authorities, and revenues are mostly available in the company registers, facilitating the assessment of market power.

Although ownership relations might be relatively transparent in Austria, especially in comparison with other countries, it is important to highlight the risk represented by arrangements such as private foundations. The legal structure of this instrument in Austria allows ownership and control of media companies to be settled in a non-transparent way, even if currently most foundations clearly indicate their controllers. Furthermore, despite general availability of economic and financial data, a lack of transparency of state funding represents a clear risk. This is clearly demonstrated by the amount and allocation practices of public advertising that brought down Sebastian Kurz’s government in 2021. Public prosecution services suspect editorial favours in return for extensive state advertising in a media group’s outlet. At the time of writing (August 2022), the Austrian government discusses new strategies to fund the media in a more equitable and transparent way, but the results of the negotiation are uncertain.

(1) As a matter of comparison, Falter also has two private foundations as ultimate owners, and their imprint mentions them and their respective donors, board, and beneficiaries.