1.032 million in Austria – Europe-wide ARTE project with ORF III transmission reached 1.252 million
Vienna (OTS) – Joy, beautiful spark of the gods – this line of text from Ludwig van Beethoven’s musical “Ode to Joy” in the 4th movement of his world-famous 9th Symphony, which celebrated its 200th birthday this week, is also symbolic of the successful programming of the ORF TV focus round anniversary of the masterpiece. This, consisting of numerous documentaries and two top-class concerts, reached a wide audience of 1.032 million viewers on ORF 2 and ORF III, which corresponds to 14 percent of the domestic TV population aged twelve and over. The new ORF 2 documentary “Beethoven’s Ninth and the Kärntnertortheater – A Musical Crime Thriller” by Barbara Weissenbeck (Dacapo: Sunday, May 12th, 9:05 a.m., ORF) achieved the highest reach on yesterday’s holiday evening (May 9th, 9:15 p.m.). 2) with a peak of 207,000 or an average of 111,000 and 4 percent market share. The subsequent concert by the Vienna Philharmonic under Riccardo Muti from the Musikverein at 10:20 p.m. saw up to 125,000 or an average of 85,000 with a market share of 4 percent.
On the anniversary day, May 7th, an extraordinary European TV project with the participation of ORF III celebrated its successful premiere. In the main evening program, the station showed Beethoven’s “Ninth” interpreted by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra live in a time-shifted manner from the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus and was also part of a four-city concert series by ARTE. The French cultural channel presented the four movements of Beethoven’s work live, one after the other, with a time delay from four European metropolises – performed by four top orchestras, each under top-class musical direction. In addition to the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Andris Nelsons, the Orchester de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala in Milan with Riccardo Chailly, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, shown on Austrian television by ORF III, under their designated chief conductor Petr Popelka, conducted the fourth movement with the famous “Ode to Joy”. The Europe-wide broadcast of this concert project proved to be a hit with audiences, with an average reach of 1.252 million viewers on ORF III and ARTE.
The ORF III broadcast of the entire symphony in Austria recorded up to 151,000 or an average of 124,000 viewers at 8:15 p.m. with a market share of 5 percent.
The widest audience of the Beethoven evening on ORF III – including a “Kultur Today Special” edition (7:45 p.m.) and the short documentary “Beethoven’s Ninth – The Countdown is On” (8:00 p.m.) with Barbara Rett – was 280,000 viewers, This corresponds to 4 percent of the Austrian TV population 12+. The European concert version from four cities achieved an average of 51,000 viewers in ARTE Austria with a 2 percent market share, in ARTE Germany 530,000 with a 2.9 percent market share and in ARTE France 547,000 with a 2.5 percent market share.