The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) governing body has announced heavyweight sports marketing agency Infront as the international rights distributor for its FIS World Championships through 2029.
Under the deal, Infront will distribute global rights to the FIS World Championships for the disciplines alpine, Nordic, snowboard, freestyle & freeski, and sky flying from 2026 to 2029.
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The agreement covers eight competitions but excludes rights in Switzerland for all events, as well as rights in Austria for the 2027 Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski World Championships, due to agreements already in place with public broadcasters SRF and ORF, respectively.
The competitions covered by the deal include the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 2027 and 2029, the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 2027 and 2029, the FIS Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski World Championships in 2027 and 2029, and the FIS Ski Flying World Championships in 2026 and 2028.
As a result of the new deal, for the first time, Infront will be able to offer broadcasters rights to the FIS World Championships and FIS World Cup across different disciplines in a wider centralized package, having already secured international distribution rights to the latter property from 2026-27 to 2033-34.
FIS president Johan Eliasch said: “This agreement represents a transformative step for FIS and for snow sports globally. By consolidating the World Cup and World Championships rights, we are building a stronger, more coherent, and more valuable proposition for our broadcast partners.
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By GlobalData“It will allow us to maximize revenues, extend the global reach of our sports, and ensure that the benefits are reinvested in athletes, events, and the sustainable growth of skiing and snowboarding.”
Bruno Mary, Infront’s senior vice president of ProSports, said: “By aligning our efforts, we can ensure the FIS World Championships reach as many markets as possible while creating a solid and transparent model that benefits the sport as a whole.
“Our joint focus is not only on maximizing exposure but also on providing a lasting framework that helps FIS reinvest in the future of skiing and snowboarding.”
The new deal follows the FIS finalizing the long-running process of media rights centralization for its various member federations by securing an agreement with the Ski Austria organization.
Under that deal, the FIS will oversee the sale of international media and broadcast rights – across all platforms – for FIS World Cup tournaments that take place in Austria from the 2027-28 to 2033-34 seasons. The rights will be distributed by Infront as part of the agency’s separate agreement with the FIS covering FIS World Cup events.
The tie-up came after a lengthy period of wrangling between the two organizations over the subject of centralization, with Austria one of the foremost skiing nations in terms of public interest.
Ski Austria had been extremely reluctant to give up its own, separate media rights deals for its World Cup events, which had been in place with Eurovision Sport (the sports arm of the European Broadcasting Union) and international sports and marketing agency IMG.
All other member associations except Ski Austria had already signed off on a rights centralization deal with Infront last December, leaving one holdout. Due to this, the centralized deal starts with the 2026-27 season for all member bodies apart from Ski Austria.
Previously, Infront had separate deals with each FIS member in place.
The move to centralization was a key part of Eliasch's successful bid for re-election, for a four-year term, as the FIS president in 2022.
