Apart from the Corona or EURO and World Cup years 2021 and 2022, highest annual market share since 2017
Vienna (OTS) – With a lot of sport such as the Alpine Ski World Cup in Courchevel and Méribel, the Women’s Football World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the cultural summer, entertainment formats such as “Dancing Stars”, “Eurovision Song Contest” and the star nights, fictional highlights such as “The Swarm”, “Quickly Detected”, “Soko Linz” or the rural crime stories as well as the comprehensive current reporting, especially on the foreign policy crisis regions, the ORF station group achieved a market share of 33.8 percent in 2023 and a daily reach of 3.589 million viewers – that corresponds to 47.6 percent of the TV population. With this annual market share, ORF television has achieved its highest value since 2017, apart from the “Corona” years and the years of the major football events EURO and World Cup 2021 and 2022.
In December 2023, the ORF broadcasting group recorded a market share of 33.9 percent and a daily reach of 3.628 million viewers – that corresponds to 48.1 percent of the TV population. ORF 1 reached 1.963 million viewers (11.1 percent market share), ORF 2 reached 2.811 million viewers (19.3 percent MA). ORF 1 and ORF 2 were at 30.4 percent MA overall, the ORF station group in the core zone (5 p.m. to 11 p.m.) was at 39.3 percent MA.
In December, the ORF group achieved a market share of 26.5 percent in the 12-29 year old target group – apart from 2021 and 2022 – the highest figure since 2010.
ORF General Director Mag. Roland Weißmann: “The available figures show that the ORF’s offerings are used daily and to a large extent by the majority of the population. The ambition to be an ‘ORF for everyone’, which is as ambitious as it is necessary, is therefore a realistic goal to which we will dedicate our programming efforts in 2024.”
Further key facts about the 2023 program year
Among the 2,000 most-watched TV programs in Austria in 2023 (base E12+, programs over five minutes long), there are 1,973 productions broadcast on ORF. The highest reach of the programs not broadcast on ORF is at number 721. With one exception (ServusTV news between an international match), all of these programs not shown on ORF are in the top 2000 ranking Formula 1 or football broadcasts (also on Hello TV).
ORF 1: 1.756 million viewers (9.5 percent market share), ORF 2:
2.840 million viewers (21.0 percent MA), ORF 1 and ORF 2 total: 30.5 percent MA, ORF station group in the core zone (5 p.m. to 11 p.m.): 39.7 percent MA.
With a 33.8 percent market share and 5.555 million viewers every week, the ORF broadcasting group is the clear Austrian market leader in terms of both market shares (12+) and reach.
ORF 1 and ORF 2 are the most successful Austrian broadcasters in the relevant target groups:
ORF 1 achieved 9.5 percent MA at 12+ and 11.3 percent MA at 12-49 this year. In the youngest target group, ORF 1 achieved MA increases in all time zones. ORF 2 achieved 21.0 percent MA among 12+ and 10.0 percent MA among 12-49. Compared to 2019, ORF 2 was able to increase by 3.2 percentage points in the target group 12+ the evening before and among 12-49 years there by 2.2 percentage points.
Numerous program offerings, especially on ORF 1, recorded strong increases in reach after evaluating time-shifted usage. With an increase of 158,000 reach (final weighted reach 765,000 reach), the episode “Der Schwarm” from March 6, 2023 was the program with the highest reuse on ORF to date. “Guglhupfgeschwader” and the country crime thriller “Immerstill” ultimately reached 725,000 and 913,000 viewers respectively, with 119,000 viewers each. “Good Night Austria” continues to be one of the most intensively used ORF program offerings, with increases of up to 113,000 viewers.
ORF III remains stable at the previous year’s level with a market share of 2.8 percent. “Monika Gruber: Too true to be beautiful” reached its annual peak on February 21st with a reach of 296,000 and a 10 percent market share. Also notable is the start of “Austria – The Whole Story” on December 27th with up to 261,000 RW at 10 percent MA.
The ten top ranges in 2023
“Time in Pictures” at 7:30 p.m. (February 13)
1.626 million viewers, 56 percent market share
“State today” (January 16)
1.536 million viewers, 60 percent market share
“Men’s Slalom Schladming”, 2nd DG (January 24th)
1.525 million viewers, 47 percent market share
“Opera Ball 2023 – The Opening” (February 16)
1.495 million viewers, 54 percent market share
“Alpine Ski World Championships: Men’s Slalom Courchevel”, 2nd DG (February 19th) 1.239 million viewers, 65 percent market share
“Men’s Kitzbühel Slalom”, 2nd DG (January 22nd)
1.222 million viewers, 62 percent market share
“ESC Song Contest 2023”, Final (May 13)
1.217 million viewers, 43 percent market share
“New Year’s Concert”, Part 2 (January 1st)
1.191 million viewers, 59 percent market share
“Departure of the Kitzbühel gentlemen” (January 21st)
1.191 million viewers, 69 percent market share
“International football match Austria – Germany”, 2nd HZ (November 21st) 1.187 million viewers, 42 percent market share
Special interest channels ORF III and ORF SPORT + are established and indispensable
The twelfth year of broadcasting by the two ORF specialty channels ORF III Culture and Information and ORF SPORT + continued to be very successful. Both have established themselves as indispensable for Austrian cultural and sporting life in the daily TV consumption of Austrians. The average daily reach of ORF III in 2023 was 818,000, that of ORF SPORT + was 214,000.
December highlights on ORF 1
— Up to 890,000 ski fans did not miss the second round of the men’s slalom in Madonna di Campiglio on December 22nd at 25 percent MA.
— On December 3rd, Michael Kögler’s documentary portrait “Franz Bracket – The Ski Emperor turns 70” achieved a top value with 429,000 RW at 16 percent MA on the second main evening.
— The TV film “Christmas Adventure – Family can never be big enough” was well used in all target groups on December 8th with an average of RW 466,000 at 18, 19 and 22 percent MA.
December highlights on ORF 2
— The “celebrity million-dollar show for LIGHT IN THE DUNKEL” achieved up to 744,000 RW on December 4th at 25 percent MA.
— The “People & Powers” documentary “The Noricum Files” saw an average of 321,000 RW on December 6th with 20 percent MA (and a strong 20 percent MA in the E-29 target group).
December highlights in ORF III
— The start of the new, epoch-making ORF III history series “Austria – The Whole Story” on December 27th was extremely successful: In total, the first two episodes reached a wide audience of almost half a million, or more precisely 498,000 viewers. 7 percent of the Austrian TV population aged twelve and over; On average, 242,000 watched episode one and 235,000 watched episode two; the market shares in the 12+ viewing group were 9 and 10 percent; Usage was particularly strong in the younger target groups: 9 and 8 percent among 12-49 and an outstanding 16 and 21 percent among 12-29; the latter correspond to a market share record in the ORF III main evening.
— “Kracher & Lacher – Christmas with Nia, Gruberin and Co” reached 210,000 or 7 percent MA on December 18th.
Source: AGTT / GfK: TELETEST; Evogenius Reporting, adults 12+, viewing participation in thousands and market share in percent, widest circle of viewers: seen at least one program briefly, data from December 25th, 2023 provisionally weighted.
Heavy use of video streaming services
The ORF video streaming offer was used intensively by users in 2023: According to online moving image measurements (AGTT/GfK TELETEST census), ORF’s live streams and video-on-demand offers (TVthek etc. ) a total of 9.8 million net views (related usage processes) and 60.6 million gross views (video starts) in Austria per month. The total usage volume averaged 278 million minutes per month. For all key figures, January was the strongest month in 2023 with 11.9 million net views, 75.1 million gross views and 370 million usage minutes (including alpine ski highlights such as Kitzbühel and Schladming).
The most used live stream of 2023 was the second half of the international match Austria – Germany on November 21st with an average reach in Austria (DRW_at) of 76,000 and 146,000 gross views (BV_at). The strongest video-on-demand offer in 2023 was “Welcome Austria” from March 28th (DRW_at: 51,000, BV_at:
347,000), the top “Live Special” stream (only on the web) was the Conference League game ACF Fiorentina – Rapid Vienna (in full length) on August 31st (DRW_at: 17,000, BV_at: 76,000). The live streams and video-on-demand offers of TV reporting on the events in Israel and the Gaza Strip as well as in Ukraine, the streams of major sports events of the year (alpine ski highlights including alpine skiing -World Cup, Formula 1, games of the Austrian national soccer team, women’s soccer World Cup, etc.) as well as streams of numerous fictional series and entertainment formats contributed significantly to the success.