Sky Austria, the country's pay-TV heavyweight, has renewed its main domestic rights deal with the top-tier Austrian league, Bundesliga. The current agreement will extend through to the 2029-30 season. The new four-year tie-up announced recently ensures that Sky Austria retains the rights to air all 195 Bundesliga matches per season starting from the 2026-27 campaign. This extension comes as a continuation of their current deal which expires at the end of the 2025-26 season.
Sky Austria's renewed deal with the Bundesliga extends beyond live match coverage. The pay-TV giant also retains the rights to broadcast highlights for all fixtures, further enhancing its offering to Austrian soccer fans. Additionally, Sky Austria has secured extensive free online rights, including options for sub-licensing. This means that Sky will continue to hold online clip rights for each Bundesliga fixture, with clips ranging between three and five minutes per game.
These clips can also be shared on Sky's social media channels, allowing fans to catch up on key moments at their convenience. The comprehensive package is completed by the re-exploitation and news coverage of all games, ensuring viewers are kept abreast of all developments in the league. Furthermore, as part of their promotional activities, Sky has been granted permission to show full-length individual games free of charge.
The existing deal through which Sky covers action from Austrian league domestically dates back to mid-2021 and is reportedly worth €40 million ($46.6 million) annually.
Public service broadcaster ORF retains co-exclusive rights
This extension between Sky Austria and Bundesliga follows an announcement made in early July where public service broadcaster ORF retained its co-exclusive rights. These include airing four live Bundesliga matches per season – two first-choice and two second-choice games – as well as highlights and short reporting rights for all 195 matches each campaign through till 2028-29.
Christian Ebenbauer, chief executive at the Bundesliga, said:
"We went through an extensive, intensive process and presented the clubs with two options with classic licensing and self-exploitation. As a result, the advantages of continuing the proven partnership between the Bundesliga and Sky have prevailed. If you look at all the rights packages awarded, there is a revenue structure that allows the clubs to plan and be stable in economically challenging times."
Starting from the 2026-27 season, a highlights program will be broadcast on Sunday evenings on ORF's channel one while ‘English rounds’ will be aired on Wednesdays. ORF currently holds the same rights package for the 2022-23 to 2025-26 cycle. Meanwhile, sports data and technology firm Sportradar has been awarded rights to the second-tier 2. Liga for the next cycle. It 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.
