ServusTV

ServusTV Twice Saved from Closure in 2016

This article recounts ServusTV's turbulent history, focusing on dramatic episodes in 2016 when owner Red Bull (and its founder Dietrich Mateschitz) twice announced shutdowns only to reverse course days or weeks later. In April 2016 Ferdinand Wegscheider became head of the channel, shortly before Red Bull announced a planned closure that was withdrawn after employees agreed not to form a works council. On 31 July 2016 Red Bull again announced ending German broadcasts, then reversed that decision and continued. The piece traces subsequent developments: criticism during the COVID era, Dietrich Mateschitz's death in October 2022, ServusTV ending linear broadcasting in Germany at the end of 2023 and moving content to the streaming service ServusTV On, and leadership changes and restructurings through 2025.

RTL acquires MotoGP free-TV rights from 2027

RTL Deutschland has secured exclusive German broadcast rights for the MotoGP ecosystem from 2027 through 2030. The agreement covers all Grand Prix races, Tissot Sprints, qualifying sessions and trainings. From the 2027 season, MotoGP and its junior series (Moto2 and Moto3) will be marketed under RTL Deutschland, with live pay-TV coverage continuing on Sky Sport and selected races shown free-to-air. DF1 (successor to ServusTV) holds a sublicence through 2026—broadcasting twelve race weekends on free TV—that will expire. The rights package also includes ancillary series such as the Harley Davidson Bagger World Cup, Northern Talent Cup and the Red Bull Rookies Cup. RTL also extended long-term pay-TV rights for Austria and Switzerland and presents the deal as part of a post-Sky integration strategy to consolidate live sports under one brand.

ORF in Crisis: Board Chair Heinz Lederer Under Fire

A governance crisis at Austria’s public broadcaster ORF intensified after a 15-hour foundation council session elected Clemens Pig as the new general director. Criticism centers on Heinz Lederer, chair of ORF’s foundation council, who is accused of political partiality and potential conflicts of interest because he also runs a PR and consulting agency and chairs an SPÖ-aligned friends circle. The controversy followed the sudden exit of former ORF director Roland Weißmann amid accusations of sexual harassment that an internal ORF probe later found not legally sustainable; Weißmann disputes that he left voluntarily and a legal dispute is ongoing. ORF journalists publicly issued a vote of no confidence in Lederer and his deputy Gregor Schütze. Lederer has also publicly pushed for an ORF-led national streaming platform, attacking the commercial streamer Joyn.