It concludes with a balance of 119 approved funding projects and a total funding volume of around 20.2 million euros Media Department of Broadcasting and Telekom Regulatory GmbH (RTR Medien) the allocation of funds from the “Fund to promote digital transformation“ to private media companies for the year 2025 from and publishes the funding results. This means the annual available budget is 20 million euros completely exhausted again.
The number of funded projects increased by 51% compared to the previous year due to a steering effect of the funding guidelines adjusted this year 119 projects back. Instead, a increased proportion of synergistic cooperation projects submitted for funding on a larger scale. This allowed them to Funding quotas for projects in the funding areas of “Digital Transformation”, “Digital Journalism” and “Child Protection and Accessibility”. around a third increasedthe realization of the projects is better secured and More efficient use of existing funding can be achieved.
“The frequently made appeal for one Austrian media join forces in digital transformation and in competition with international online giants comes to life with the cooperation projects of the Transformation Fund,” says Wolfgang Struber, Managing Director of RTR Medien. “This year we have funding applications from 29 media outlets, some of which are completely independent and some of which come from corporate associations, and are working together on 11 projects. This supports synergies for the same development steps and optimizes the use of funding, which can be used, among other things, for increased funding quotas. For 2025 it is Funding rate per project averages around 30%“In 2024 the average was just under 23%,” says Struber.
At the previous submission dates, RTR Medien received application volumes that approximately doubled the annual resources available for the transformation fund. In many cases, a significant reduction in the calculated funding amounts per project was therefore necessary. The funding amounts were then no longer sufficient to realize many projects. This year it was total funding amount requested at least still 70% over the available budget.
“We are building on these experiences with one for the 2025 funding year Adjustment ours Guidelines responded in order to use existing funds to specifically support projects that promise greatest impact in terms of the legal funding goals “To achieve this and to be most likely to be successful in international competition,” explains Wolfgang Struber. “Projects with planned costs of at least 300,000 euros are now eligible to apply instead of the previous 100,000 euros. This is not intended to exclude anyone, but rather them Promote ideas of cooperationeven at smaller media companies. The Capping the maximum funding 1.75 million euros per group of companies is part of these considerations, but also contributes to greater equity in funding and is supported by the Limit to one application per funding applicant and funding area of the Transformation Fund,” said Struber.
With a significantly reduced number of submitted projects, the promised funding for 2025 in the individual funding areas of the transformation fund remained largely unchanged compared to the previous year. On Projects to “Digital transformation“ 11.24 million euros are allocated to the funding area “Digital journalism“ 1.68 million euros and for “Incentive grants“, which is granted as an advance payment in connection with a specific project, 6.73 million euros have been promised.
The funding area “Child protection and accessibility“ stands out with a positive development in the number of projects. Just three projects were submitted for 2024, and 10 projects for 2025, all of which are aimed at increasing accessibility through the Use of artificial intelligence for the automated generation of offers simple languageto Subtitling or for that Reading texts aloud should serve.
The “Fund to Promote Digital Transformation”
The “Fund for the Promotion of Digital Transformation”, which is legally established at RTR Medien and endowed with 20 million euros annually, provides the Austrian media market with state resources to promote the development and expansion of digital offerings and thus to maintain domestic media and opinion diversity . According to strict guidelines and in consultation with the legally required advisory board, projects of private media companies are supported that gear their offerings to the Austrian audience and implement innovations in the areas of “digital transformation”, “digital journalism” or “child protection and accessibility”. want to take advantage of “incentive funding” to develop projects.
Publication of funding decisions
The funding decisions for the submission phase for 2025 are available on the RTR website https://www.rtr.at/FDT-Entscheidungen published.
About RTR Media
The media department of Rundfunk und Telekom Regels-GmbH (RTR Medien, managing director Mag. Wolfgang Struber) is Austria’s largest funding agency for media companies (radio, podcast, television, print) and, with the TV Fund Austria, supports television film productions and thus international investments in the local film location. As a competence center for these markets, RTR Medien shares its knowledge in studies, reports or events. The Rundfunk und Telekom Regels-GmbH (RTR) is a federal institution and is divided into two departments: media (RTR Medien) and telecommunications and post (RTR.Telekom.Post, managing director Klaus M. Steinmaurer). The two departments in common are the offices of the Communications Authority Austria (KommAustria), Telekom Control Commission (TKK) and Post Control Commission (PCK). www.rtr.at) as well as Austria’s AI service point. www.rtr.at