Austrian public-service broadcaster ORF has welcomed the decision of the country’s media regulator, Medienbehörde KommAustria, to reject a complaint from commercial broadcaster Puls 4 over its rights deal for the Uefa Champions League club football competition.
Puls 4, which was outbid by ORF for the rights for three seasons, from 2015-16 to 2017-18, lodged its complaint in January 2014, arguing that the public-service broadcaster paid excessively for the rights – contravening a clause in its agreement with the government.
Puls 4 chief executive Markus Breitenecker said at the time that ORF would generate a “significant negative return” on its “significantly inflated” rights fee. However, KommAustria has ruled that ORF did not acquire the Champions League rights at an inflated price, adding that Puls 4’s complaint is “unfounded.”
ORF general director Alexander Wrabetz said: “The ORF welcomes this decision. It confirms that the ORF has acquired the Champions League rights entirely lawfully and on commercially reasonable terms. We have assumed that the result of an open and fair bidding process, as in the case of the Champions League, would not be corrected retrospectively and are glad for the purposes of our audience to now have legal certainty.”
Puls 4 can appeal KommAustria’s decision to the country’s federal administrative court.