TMG-backed ATV is one of only two independent players in Austria’s small but highly competitive TV market. The broadcaster, which operates two free TV channels, ATV1 and AVT2, competes against the mighty pubcaster ORF and Germany’s commercial network groups, all of which operate an Austrian TV window and sell advertising slots in the local market.

“Together with Servus TV, we really are the only two independent TV providers in Austria,” says Martin Gastinger, MD of ATV.

The channel positions itself “as the Austrian network with the most original domestic programmes,” says Gastinger. “Our original formats are important to us to help distinguish us from our competitors. We have at least five new formats every year that we develop ourselves and most of them launch successfully.”

German broadcasters are able to put an Austrian stamp on their feed with local news – the only domestic content produced by ProSiebenSat.1-owned Puls4, for instance, and also made available to other windows within the group, but this doesn’t make them domestic channels, argues Gastinger.

Over the past last couple of years the ATV group has been holding its own, with a stable 6% viewing share in its main 12-49 target, with ATV on 5% and ATV2 on 0.9%.

While ORF dominates with around 30% of viewing across its four channels, ORF1, 2 and 3, and ORF Sports Plus in ATV’s main 12-49 demo, the country’s second largest provider is the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, with seven or eight channels, including Puls4. In 2013, the group’s German channels reached a combined 18.7% of 12-49s, with Puls4 adding a further 4%. RTL channels followed with a 13.1% share, Germany’s RTL2 on 3.4% and independent Austrian channel Servus TV on 1.3%.