Alexander Wrabetz & Austrian National Broadcast ORF in Trouble

My former employer, the Austrian National Broadcast (ORF) appears to sink deeper in problems as time passes on: Today, the tabloid daily paper Österreich reported a steep decline in viewers that the company seems to be unable of stopping. In addition, there is an increasing number of competitors - the Vienna-based private TV channel ATV just saw its highest number of viewers in the channel's history this week. Private TV channels from Germany, belonging to the Pro7 group, have extended their focus on the Austrian market since 2007, when all households in the country with TV sets could receive the digital "broadcasting". The ORF responds with pay-cuts, removes staff especially among its rather privileged managers via sometimes very golden handshakes and sends staff into early retirement. This is due to severe financial problems: The company reported losses of several dozens of million Euros.

Behind closed doors, ORF staff speculates about losses as high as 100 million Euros since 2007, when the current director Alexander Wrabetz took office. Rumour has it that the company lost a lot of money in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, via the Vienna-based Bank Medici. Whilst such rumours are without any profound evidence as of now, the highly political ORF will remain a topic of great interest in Austria in the coming year regardless of how the financial situation develops. Especially with regional elections in Vienna coming up, which makes the social democrats increasingly nervous after recent losses. The ORF director is considered a "red" manager and has been politically active for the left-wing VSStÖ during his student days.