By Martin Ross, SportBusiness.com
The Austrian Bundesliga (ÖFBL) and its clubs have opted against launching a direct-to-consumer service, choosing instead to accept guaranteed rights revenue from a renewal with pay-television broadcaster Sky Österreich.
Sky, which has held the domestic rights for over two decades, has secured live pay-TV rights to all 195 matches each season from the Admiral Bundesliga, plus highlights and clip rights.
The new contract runs from 2026-27 to 2029-30. It follows on from the league’s earlier deal struck with public broadcaster ORF for four live free-to-air matches per season plus highlights.
The ÖFBL dismissed first-round bids in May and said that it was advancing its plans to find investors to back an in-house direct-to-consumer domestic broadcast platform. However, it kept the option open of awarding its live rights. Just 10 days ago, Austrian Bundesliga clubs met and discussed a possible ‘hybrid’ involving both Sky and a D2C service.
The league’s smaller clubs are thought to have been particularly in favour of maintaining what they felt was the security of a new deal with the league’s historic broadcast partner.
It had been hoped that Canal Plus would challenge Sky strongly for the rights since moving into the premium sports rights market in Austria with a swoop for Uefa club competition matches from 2024-25 to 2026-27.
In addition to a licence fee from Sky, the Austrian Bundesliga clubs will each receive advertising time quotas on the broadcaster which they can sell themselves. Holdbacks for use of match footage have also been cut down in the new deal, allowing clubs and the league to show footage the day after a match (instead of the Monday after a matchweek).
Sky will also continue to broadcast selected top-tier matches on a free-to-air basis and can show online clips of between three and five minutes per match, plus social media clips. The inventory is rounded off by news rights to all matches and the ability to re-broadcast individual matches in full and free “for promotional purposes”.
Commenting on the decision to stick with Sky, Christian Ebenbauer, the ÖFBL chief executive, remarked: “We went through a comprehensive, intensive process and presented the clubs with two options: traditional licensing and rights self-utilisation.
“Ultimately, the advantages of continuing the proven partnership between the Bundesliga and Sky prevailed. Considering all the rights packages awarded, a revenue structure is in place that provides the clubs with predictability and stability in economically challenging times.”
Munich-based consultancy SN1 Consulting advised the ÖFBL on its domestic and international rights sales. This included the exploration of direct-to-consumer opportunities.
Full article: https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/austrian-bundesliga-snubs-d2c-renews-with-sky/