ORF is set to provide exclusive live/delayed, highlights and news coverage across television, online and mobile platforms nationwide for the men's and women's Alpine, cross-country and ski jumping races as well as for the men's Nordic combined races.

The 2019 Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships are scheduled to take place in Åre, Sweden and Seefeld, Austria respectively, while the hosts for the 2021 editions have yet to be decided.

Additionally, ORF has renewed its existing media rights agreement for another FIS World Cup cycle, which includes all the World Ski Championship disciplines, the men's and women's snowboard and freestyle races, as well as the official FIS World Cup magazine programmes.

The annual FIS World Cups stretch across the entire winter sports season, starting in October and concluding in March.

"The agreement with ORF in Austria is the second milestone in our media rights distribution effort for the prestigious FIS Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships - a new premium property in our portfolio from 2019," said Bruno Marty, executive director for winter sports at Infront.

"ORF will be able to build on its well established position as the country's number one channel for skiing as it is also retaining the comprehensive FIS World Cup rights, allowing for continuous and diverse skiing coverage all season long.

"Leading up to the 2019 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Austria, ORF is well equipped to meet the expected growing fan demand."

Åre in Sweden is set to host the 2019 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships ©Getty Images




Infront was chosen by the FIS as its overall commercial partner for the 2019 and 2021 Alpine and Nordic World Skiing Championships - handling the media rights distribution, television production, sponsorship, merchandising and hospitality - in June 2013. 

As media and/or marketing partner to the majority of national associations hosting FIS World Cup events across various disciplines, Infront claims to have facilitated global media rights distribution through a collective approach, developed and produced attractive programming formats and increased worldwide visibility for the series.

Together with the FIS, Infront has also established guidelines to ensure a consistent quality in media production across the entire season.

"ORF as Austria's national public service broadcaster has a long-term tradition in skiing and with our country contributing many of the most successful athletes, our viewers expect full coverage of these popular and prestigious races across all disciplines," said Alexander Wrabetz, ORF director general.

"With Infront collectively providing key FIS skiing properties from one hand, we were able to close an all-encompassing media rights agreement and ultimately benefit from long-term planning and security.

"Scheduling these highlights within our programming, we can guarantee must-see skiing content for our audiences over the coming years."

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