Austrian media company Uppercut has been named as the new production partner for Austrian soccer's top-tier Bundesliga, as the league prepares to enter its next rights cycle.
The “long-term” agreement, struck with league organizer ÖFBL, will see Uppercut produce all 195 Bundesliga matches per season starting from the 2026-27 campaign, with the company to implement remote productions from its newly constructed broadcast center in Vienna, Austria.
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Uppercut will work alongside two other companies that are contracted to produce the basic signal for the match, allowing “efficient and flexible ways of working.”
As part of the agreement, Bundesliga gains a seat on Uppercut’s supervisory board and has an option to acquire a stake of up to 26% in the company.
Bundesliga chief executive Christian Ebenbauer: "The busy process of the last two years has gone far beyond the classic awarding of commissioned production. On the one hand, we have ensured the basic signal production through a proven partner who is also very familiar with staging Bundesliga matches.
“On the other hand, the partnership with the seat on the Supervisory Board and the right of option gives us the opportunity to react better strategically to the change in the media markets that is taking place."
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By GlobalDataThe deal builds on Uppercut’s previous experience in producing live productions for Austrian and German television stations, including producing Bundesliga matches on behalf of pay-TV broadcaster Sky Austria since the 2022-23 season.
Uppercut chief executive Daniel Brandstätter said: "This partnership is a milestone for Uppercut and a strong signal for Austria as a production location.
“With our broadcast center and the use of state-of-the-art remote production technologies, we will set new standards in the domestic TV production landscape from the coming season.
“We look forward to working with the Bundesliga to further expand the quality and reach of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga and to offer football fans in Austria a first-class TV experience."
The deal comes shortly after the Bundesliga secured its future domestic coverage by renewing its main domestic rights deal with Sky Austria through 2029-30, which will air all 195 Bundesliga matches per season starting from the 2026-27 season.
Sky’s current contract dates back to mid-2021 and runs through the 2025-26 Bundesliga season, which got underway in September.
The league also announced in early July that public service broadcaster ORF will retain its rights to co-exclusively air four Bundesliga matches per season live – two first-choice and two second-choice games – as well as highlights and short reporting rights for all 195 matches each campaign, through 2028-29.
Starting from the 2026-27 season, a highlights program will be broadcast on Sunday evenings on the ORF 1 channel, while ‘English rounds’ will be aired on Wednesdays. ORF currently holds the same rights package for the current 2022-23 to 2025-26 cycle.
Rights to the second-tier 2. Liga for the next cycle, meanwhile, was awarded to sports data and technology firm Sportradar, which will show all 240 matches via its Laola.tv streaming platform, at that time.
Additionally, betting rights for both leagues, including streaming and data rights, have been awarded to Sportradar.
