"All that remains is a skeleton"

60 million minus: The secret ORF cut list

ORF General Weißmann can look forward to a slimmed-down savings program.

(Bild: Thomas Ramstorfer)

With a "Zuckerl" coalition, the financing of ORF from the budget is off the table, the unpopular budget levy remains. Nevertheless, the pressure to save money is increasing. Because even with the freezing of the fee, there is a gaping hole of millions in the broadcasting budget. The "Krone" knows the secret list of cuts.

The public broadcaster and money! While the FPÖ would have liked to push through a slimmed-down basic broadcasting service with the abolition of the ORF fee in the government negotiations, a shrunken savings package is now being presented. Although the ORF fee will remain, the freezing of the unpopular budget levy will leave a huge budget gap on the Küniglberg for at least three years.

We are already implementing a tough 325 million savings package over the next few years. Additional cuts would result in program cuts. "Tatort" episodes, "Universum" and "Bergdoktor" as well as sports coverage and the broadcast of "Starnacht" would be called into question.

Der grüne Stiftungsrats-Chef Lothar Lockl

Orchestra, employees, half of the TV stations on the cut list
According to internal calculations by the broadcaster, there would then be a shortfall of around 60 million euros per year for the next period of operation from 2027. General Roland Weißmann has a tough savings plan in the drawer for this. The list of cuts includes (again) the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sport+ and ORF III, which would mean the lights going out for two out of four TV channels. There are also repeated reports of the alternative radio station FM4 being switched off.

However, all of this would bring in a maximum of half of the loss, i.e. 30 million euros. And politicians would also have a say in this planned cutback. The rest would have to be covered by a large personnel package.

This would involve cutting up to 500 employees, a third of them in the regional studios. The blue savings hammer (around 150 million euros per year) would of course have hit ORF much harder. The head of the Board of Trustees, Lothar Lockl, had already warned in drastic terms in the "Krone" that Austrian "Tatort" thrillers, "Universum" episodes or "Starnacht" would be axed: "Then all that will be left is an ORF skeleton ..."