Österreichischer Rundfunk

(lit.: 'Austrian Broadcasting'; ORF) is an Austrian national public broadcaster. Funded from a combination of television licence fee revenue and limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media. Austria was the last country in continental Europe after Albania to allow nationwide private television broadcasting, although commercial TV channels from neighbouring Germany have been present in Austria on pay-TV and via terrestrial overspill since the 1980s. History of broadcasting in Austria The first unregulated test transmissions in Austria began on 1 April 1923 by Radio Hekaphon, run by the radio pioneer and enthusiast Oskar Czeija (de; 1887–1958), who applied for a radio licence in 1921; first in his telephone factory in the Brigittenau district of Vienna, later in the nearby TGM technical college. On 2 September, it aired a first broadcast address by Austrian President Michael Hainisch (1858–1940). One year later, a powerful transmitter, designed by the German Telefunken company, was installed on the roof of the former War Ministry building in in central Vienna. Radio Verkehrs AG It was, however, the public ('Radio Communication Company Ltd', RAVAG), a joint-venture of the Austrian Federal Government, the City of Vienna and several bank companies, which, in February 1924, was awarded the concession to begin broadcasting, with Czeja as its director-general. Regular transmissions began on 1 October 1924 from provisional studios inside the War Ministry building that were to become known as . By the end of October 1924 it already had 30,000 listeners, and by January 1925 100,000. Relay transmitters, established across the country by 1934, ensured that all Austrians could listen to at a monthly fee of two schillings.