Austrian men’s soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga (ÖFBL) and second-tier 2.Liga have awarded their first domestic rights packages for the 2026-27 to 2028-29 rights cycle, three months after launching an all-encompassing tender.
The league announced 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.
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, while the main package of domestic rights to the 12-team Austrian Bundesliga is held by the dominant pay-television broadcaster Sky Osterreich.
The Sky deal has a total (reported) value of €160 million (at the moment, $176 million) over four seasons.
Internationally, meanwhile, the OneFootball streaming service airs ÖFBL action.
Bundesliga chief executive Christian Ebenbauer has said: “Especially with a view to our own Bundesliga platform, it makes strategic sense to already have a strong free-TV partner in ORF. At the same time, we retain all other options in our own hands."
Rights to the second-tier 2.Liga for the next cycle, meanwhile, have been awarded to sports data and technology firm Sportradar, which will show all 240 matches via its Laola.tv streaming platform.
Additionally, betting rights for both leagues, including streaming and data rights, have been awarded to Sportradar.
While the data firm will continue to produce the games and retain overall exclusive rights and the option to sublicense, the Bundesliga has retained the right to bring all matches to a league-owned platform as part of a complete package.
The Austrian league is looking to launch a separate platform from 2026 that will give fans access to both leagues, with the potential offering to include up to 435 games per season.
The rights deals come three months after the ÖFBL launched an invitation to tender the domestic and international media rights for the league’s next three-season cycle in April.
The league announced that an “open, transparent, and non-discriminatory” process would take place, covering both Austrian and worldwide media rights to the 2026-27, 2027-28, and 2028-29 Bundesliga seasons.
At the time, it stated that broadcasters, digital platform operators, rights agencies, and telecommunications firms could all apply.
In October, the Austrian Bundesliga brought in SN1, the Munich-based boutique media rights consultancy, to advise on its rights strategies for the 2026-27 season onward.
At that point, the consulting firm was tasked with providing the following services to the Austrian league: analysis and evaluation of key commercial growth factors, preparation of a formal tender process, and assessment of direct-to-consumer opportunities “in conjunction with strategic partnerships capable of providing commercial leverage.”
