Public advertising expenses increase at record height of EUR 307.5 million!

Public advertising expenses increase at record height of EUR 307.5 million!

The communication authority Austria (KommaUstria) has published the media transparency data for the second half of 2024, which show that public legal entities spent a total of almost 307.5 million euros for advertising and information circuits. This corresponds to a significantly higher volume compared to the previous year. According to Medianet reported 1.463 Legal support their expenses, whereby the total number of the individual positions was 79,134.

The increase in expenses is particularly noteworthy, since the public sector spent a total of 417.9 million euros in 2023. The increase of around 225 million euros in 2024 is primarily due to the tightening of the media transparency law, which also includes expenses for non-periodic media. This led to the abolition of the trivial limit, which means that expenses must now be reported from the first euro.

breakdown of the expenses

of the total reported 307.5 million euros are around 221.4 million euros on advertising and information measures. A precise analysis shows that the city of Vienna, with 23.9 million euros, had the largest position below public expenses, followed by the Austria Chamber of Commerce with 11 million euros and the climate protection, environmental and energy Ministry, which spent around 9.1 million euros. These numbers mark an increase compared to the previous year's expenditure in these areas. Around 5.5 million euros were registered for the Ministry of Defense, which also represents an increase compared to the 4.1 million euros in 2023.

The expenses in various media areas were also evaluated in detail. The out-of-home advertising accounted for around 71.2 million euros, while print media advertising reached around 70.8 million euros. Online advertising was around 48.9 million euros, followed by TV advertising with 19.9 million euros and radio advertising with 10.6 million euros, such as ORF reported.

boulevard and digital media benefit

An interesting aspect of expenses is the grant to different media formats. Boulevard newspapers received significant amounts, with the "Kronen Zeitung" income of 9.6 million euros and "today" around 4 million euros. International online companies such as Meta and Google each received over 8 million euros. Tikkok, on the other hand, received 1.1 million euros in advertising revenue from public funds, which underlines the growing importance of digital platforms.

In addition, an analysis shows that the advertising of the Ministry of Climate Protection mainly focused on the “today” (print) and ORF2 advertising spending of 141,000 euros. The city of Vienna also invested large sums in print media, including 940,000 euros for "today" and 777,000 euros for the "Kronen Zeitung", while the Department of Defense raised 335,000 euros for advertising in "Today". These trends illustrate the strategic orientation of the advertising expenditure that specifically flow into considerable media investments in order to achieve a wider target group.

Overall, the newly introduced transparency measures and the associated extensive data acquisition lead to the public now receiving a clearer insight into the advertising expenditure of the public sector. The possibility of visualizing data in interactive diagrams and graphics that has existed since 2024 also enables a differentiated analysis of the expenditure of individual ministries or municipalities, as on Sn.at is highlighted.