Austria’s public broadcaster, ORF, achieved a record viewership of 6.138 million during its coverage of the Winter Olympics, held between February 6th and 22nd, 2026. This represents 81 percent of the Austrian television audience aged twelve and over, with peak market shares reaching 85 percent among viewers aged 12-29, according to data released February 23, 2026.
The games’ coverage, totaling over 500 hours across ORF 1 and ORF Sport+, surpassed previous Olympic viewership records for the Austrian broadcaster. Fourteen broadcasts exceeded 800,000 viewers, with two exceeding one million.
The men’s downhill race on February 7th drew the largest single audience, peaking at 1.177 million viewers and averaging 1.088 million, representing a 73 percent market share. This was the most-watched Olympic downhill race in Austria in twelve years. The women’s downhill race on February 8th also achieved record numbers, peaking at 1.238 million viewers and averaging 1.052 million with a 67 percent market share – a modern Olympic best for Austria after sixteen years.
The second run of the men’s giant slalom on February 14th attracted up to 1.152 million viewers, averaging 990,000 with a 69 percent market share. Anna Gasser’s Large Air qualification on February 9th garnered 832,000 viewers (31 percent market share), while the Snowboard PGS event featuring Benjamin Karl and Jakob Dusek reached up to 729,000 and averaged 659,000 viewers (48 percent market share) – a TV record for snowboarding since 2010.
Jonas Müller’s performance in the men’s luge event on February 8th also broke records, attracting up to 693,000 and averaging 656,000 viewers (30 percent market share) – the highest viewership for luge since 2002.
The ORF’s coverage of the Opernball on February 12th, combined with the Olympic broadcasts, resulted in a daily market share of 52 percent – the highest daily value for ORF in eleven years. ORF Sport+ also experienced a significant boost, reaching a daily audience of nearly 300,000.
“Six million viewers demonstrate the importance of keeping sporting events like the Olympics on free-to-air television,” stated ORF Director-General Roland Weißmann. “I am particularly pleased with the record ratings for those athletes who are often in the shadow of Alpine and Nordic sports. More than half a million fans watching live – that’s what sports like luge, skeleton, freestyle, and snowboard cross and PGS have earned. My thanks also go to the ORF Olympic team, which, spread across many venues, delivered great performances with up to 25 hours of live coverage per day.”
Viewership was highest in Burgenland (88 percent), followed by Salzburg (84 percent), and Carinthia and Styria (both 83 percent). Hitradio Ö3 and the ORF regional radio stations collectively reached 3.9 million listeners aged ten and over daily, representing 48.1 percent of the population.
Livestreams and video-on-demand content related to ORF’s Olympic coverage, from February 4th to 22nd, 2026, totaled 290 million minutes of usage, 28 million gross views, and 7.6 million net views – the highest figures ever recorded for Olympic coverage since measurements began in 2017. The livestream of the second run of the men’s slalom achieved an average reach of 81,000 viewers, making it the most-watched livestream of the Milan/Cortina games and the strongest livestream of an alpine ski competition since measurements began.