Most of the World Cup games, including the final and the opening game, can be seen on ORF. ServusTV shows the majority of Euro games – including finals, semi-finals and games of the Austrian national team, if they qualify. “The high-priced sports rights market calls for creative and pragmatic solutions if you want to prevent live sports from disappearing behind paywalls. In this sense, the current agreement on the FIFA World Cup 2022 and UEFA Euro 2024 is very pleasing for the home fans,” said ORF Director General Roland Weißmann in a broadcast. ServusTV director Ferdinand Wegscheider is also pleased with the cooperation in terms of the entire media location: “The big winners of this model are above all the football fans, who can experience all games of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and UEFA EURO 2024 on free-to-air television.”
The ORF is the rights holder for the World Cup in Qatar, which takes place from November 21st to December 18th. The broadcasting rights to 25 of the 64 live games were given to ServusTV, whereby the private broadcaster will show 19 games from the group phase, two round of 16 and two quarter-final matches, one semi-final and the game for third place.
At the Euro from June 14 to July 11, 2024 in Germany, the situation is the other way around. ServusTV is the rights holder here and cedes the broadcasting rights to 20 of a total of 51 live games to the ORF. The ORF will show 16 games from the group phase, two eighth finals and two quarter-finals. The sublicense agreements include extensive highlight, clip and news rights for both WM and Euro.
The ORF has already sub-licensed major football events in the past – such as parallel games at the end of group phases to ATV or oe24.tv. The ORF is a sublicensee for Formula 1, for example, to which ServusTV holds the rights. The two media companies are also splitting up the qualifiers for the men’s national soccer team for Euro 2024.
Source: Nachrichten
