Landesliga

The Landesliga is the fourth level of men’s professional football in Austria. It was founded in the 1940s and is organized by the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB), and ranks behind the Bundesliga, 2. Liga, and Regionalliga on the Austrian football pyramid.

The Landesliga is divided into nine conferences, with each conference representing one of the nine states in Austria. Each conference has a set number of teams, with the top two teams in each conference being promoted to the Regionalliga at the end of each season. Conversely, the worst-performing three teams are demoted to the Oberliga, the fifth tier of men’s professional football in Austria.

Media rights to the Landesliga have been held by multiple entities since its foundation in the 1940s. For much of the 1960s through the rest of the 20th century, broadcast rights were largely under the umbrella of public broadcaster ORF. At the start of the 21st century, several paid-TV providers secured media rights, including Premier Sports Austria and Sky Sports Austria, before ORF regained TV broadcast and live-streaming rights to the Landesliga in the mid 2010s and have remained one of the main broadcasters since then.