Comprehensive package of Alpine and Nordic events secured by Austrian broadcaster through Infront
Zug, Switzerland - ORF, the Austrian public service national broadcaster, has extended its media rights partnership for International Ski Federation (FIS) events, reaching an agreement with Infront, a Wanda Sports Group company and the exclusive media and marketing partner of FIS.
The agreement includes the 2023 and 2025 FIS Alpine, Nordic, Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Ski Championships.
It also encompasses all FIS Alpine, Cross-Country, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Cup events managed by Infront up until the 2025/26 season.
ORF currently holds the rights to broadcast all disciplines of both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 FIS World Cup and 2021 FIS World Championships which they secured in an agreement with Infront in 2015.
Infront Senior Vice President Bruno Marty said: "This extended agreement with ORF marks another milestone in our media rights distribution business activities. We are pleased to ensure long-term coverage of the highest quality for a wide range of FIS flagship events through a well-established, expert winter sports broadcaster and a long-standing Infront partner."
ORF General Director Dr. Alexander Wrabetz said: "This is a ground-breaking media rights agreement which ensures winter sports fans will be able to follow their favourite sport live and free-to-air on ORF. The reputation of ORF as one of the world's leading winter sports channels ultimately made the successful renewal possible and the public and ORF will equally benefit in the years to come.”
ORF Head of Sports Hans Peter Trost said: "The agreement with Infront was reached through open and fair negotiations and will guarantee comprehensive winter sports coverage. This is remarkable and a good message for the domestic sport as the international trend currently shows that live sport programmes must be massively reduced on free-to-air."
The first event of the FIS Alpine World Cup 2019/20 season begins this weekend in Soelden, Austria.
