How to watch Austrian TV from abroad

ORF ON is the free streaming service of ORF, Austria’s public broadcaster, and it took over from the old ORF-TVthek in May 2024. You get live channels (ORF 1, ORF 2, ORF III and ORF SPORT+) plus a deep catch-up library: Austrian series, films, documentaries, children’s programmes, ZIB news, culture and sport, from alpine skiing to football. There is no subscription and nothing to pay; the platform is covered by the household ORF-Beitrag fee. Since the 2024 broadcasting law, programmes stay online far longer than the old seven-day window, and some titles turn up a day before they air on TV. The catch is geography: most live and sport content is locked to Austria. From abroad you reach ORF ON with a VPN set to an Austrian server, which gives your connection an Austrian IP.

ATV was Austria’s first nationwide private television channel. It went on air in 2003 as ATVplus, took its current name in 2006, and belongs to ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4. Around two fifths of the schedule is made in house, mostly Austrian reality and docu soap formats such as the flagship Bauer sucht Frau, Teenager werden Mütter and Pfusch am Bau. Around that sit the ATV Aktuell news, documentaries, US and German series and free TV movie premieres. The live stream and the catch up Mediathek run free and ad supported, exclusively through the Joyn platform, since ATV has no standalone app of its own. The stream is available only from inside Austria, and online quality tops out around 720p, with no 4K.

PULS 4 is Austria’s free-to-air commercial entertainment channel, funded by advertising and run by the ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 group in Vienna. It took its current name in 2008, having grown out of the earlier Puls TV. The schedule mixes drama, films, reality, news and documentaries, with familiar titles such as the startup show 2 Minuten 2 Millionen, the breakfast programme Cafe Puls and the political debate Pro und Contra. From the 2027/28 season it holds the Austrian free-TV rights to the UEFA Champions League final and the UEFA Super Cup. You watch the live stream through the Joyn platform on the web, mobile, Apple TV, Fire TV and smart TVs, in roughly HD. The stream is limited to Austria and Joyn does not officially support VPNs, so from abroad you need a VPN with an Austrian server to set your virtual location. The channel itself stays free.

ORF III is the public-service culture and information channel of Austria’s national broadcaster, on air since autumn 2011 on the frequency once held by TW1. It bills itself as the country’s largest cultural stage, mixing opera, theatre, concerts and cabaret with documentaries on contemporary history, science and Austrian cinema, plus discussion and news formats. You can stream it for free through ORF ON, though it is available only within Austria.

PULS 24 is Austria’s free 24-hour news channel, run by the ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 group in Vienna and on air since 1 September 2019. It is funded by advertising and costs nothing to watch. The output is rolling news, politics and current affairs, with live event coverage and the talk shows Pro und Contra and Milborn, the latter hosted by news director Corinna Milborn. You follow the live stream and catch-up through the Joyn platform or the dedicated PULS 24 app for iOS, Android and Huawei, on the web and on smart TVs, in HD. The stream is geo-blocked to Austria and Joyn does not officially support VPNs, so viewers abroad need a VPN with an Austrian server that sets their virtual location. The channel itself remains free.

ORF SPORT+ is Austria’s public-service sports channel, dedicated since 2011 to the disciplines that rarely make it onto the main schedule. Its live coverage spans volleyball, handball, judo, athletics, swimming, winter sports and Austria’s own domestic leagues. You can watch it free through ORF ON, though streaming is limited to viewers inside Austria.

Sky X is Sky’s Austrian streaming service, run entirely through an app with no dish or satellite box needed. Anyone in Austria can sign up and watch on the web, phone, Apple TV, games consoles or Samsung and LG smart TVs. The line-up splits into three packages: Fiction for series and films including Sky Originals and HBO titles, Sport for live action, and the Kombi bundle that joins both. On the sport side you get the Austrian ADMIRAL Bundesliga, Formula 1, tennis and the Champions League, though the latter only through the 2026/27 season. Picture quality tops out at 1080p Full HD with no 4K, and one stream at a time. It is a paid subscription needing an Austrian payment method, and you can watch up to 30 days anywhere in the EU. Outside the bloc it is blocked, so from further afield a VPN with an Austrian server shifts only your virtual location. A switch to the WOW brand is planned for autumn 2026.

krone.tv is the free Austrian news and general-interest channel run by Krone Multimedia, the company behind Vienna’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper. It started online back in 2016 and went on air as a proper linear channel in September 2020. There is no subscription: the service is free and paid for by advertising. You can follow the live channel and catch up on past shows through the Joyn platform and the krone.at video hub, with a handful of clips also free on YouTube. The line-up includes the midday bulletin Krone zu Mittag, the talk show Club 3, the political debate Das Duell, plus magazines and sport chat. It works on the web, iOS, Android, smart TVs, Apple TV and Fire TV, broadcasting in German at roughly HD quality. The catch: the full live channel and Joyn catch-up are geo-locked to Austria, and Joyn does not officially support VPNs, so from abroad you will want a VPN with an Austrian server to set your virtual location there.

Run by Vienna-based Sportradar since 2001, LAOLA1 pairs an Austrian sports streaming service with a busy news portal. The free, ad-supported side carries live matches, highlights, live tickers and reporting across Austrian football, beach volleyball from the win2day Beach Tour, volleyball, handball, basketball, motorsport and La Liga highlights. A paid LAOLA1 PREMIUM tier adds HD, far fewer ads, livestreams inside the mobile apps, dynamic rewind, AirPlay and reminders. From the 2026/27 season most second-division fixtures sit behind a paywall, though the round’s top match and all highlights stay free. Rights are geo-restricted per competition.

CANAL+ is the Austrian pay-TV and streaming service run by the Canal+ Group, rebranded in June 2024 from the former HD Austria. It blends old-school satellite television with a modern app. The CANAL+ Total package bundles more than a hundred channels including ORF, over forty premium stations, films, series and selected live UEFA top fixtures, while the lighter Kombi keeps things to around thirty channels. There is also a streaming-only Filme & Serien tier that runs through the app with no satellite dish and serves up exclusive films, series and Canal+ originals. Watch on the web, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast and smart TVs, in 4K via satellite or up to Full HD in the app. It is a paid subscription with a twelve-month minimum term and is built for Austria. From abroad you connect through a VPN with an Austrian server, and you still pay for your own CANAL+ plan.

ATV2 is the second, complementary channel of Austria’s ATV, operated by ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4. On air since December 2011, it has always worked as a sister service to its parent, leaning on reruns, scheduling that wraps around ATV’s reality lineup, and a steady supply of imported series and films aimed at a slightly younger crowd. Online you watch it free and ad supported, but only through the Joyn platform, since there is no standalone app and atv2.at simply forwards you into Joyn. The live stream and catch up are limited to Austria, so the signal is geo restricted, and picture quality tops out around HD rather than 4K or HDR.

ORF KIDS is the free, ad-free children’s streaming service from Austria’s public broadcaster ORF, available at kids.orf.at. It launched on 1 January 2024 and got its own app the following October. There is a round-the-clock kids livestream alongside plenty on demand: original Austrian shows, cartoons, programmes about nature, knowledge and creativity, and a children’s news bulletin, ZIB KiDS, which is offered in sign language. It is aimed at roughly ages 3 to 14, in a safe, violence-free, age-rated and barrier-free space. Everything is free and you do not even need to log in, because the service is funded by the ORF household fee rather than advertising, so there are no ads at all. You can watch on the web, on dedicated iOS and Android apps, and through the ORF ON apps on Fire TV and on Samsung and LG smart TVs, in German at up to roughly Full HD. A few licensed titles are restricted to Austria while ORF’s own productions travel more widely, so from abroad you will want a VPN with an Austrian server to set your virtual location there.

W24, known as Wiener Stadtfernsehen, is the municipal city channel of Vienna, Austria. It is operated by WH Media GmbH, a company within Wien Holding, the holding group owned by the City of Vienna. Launched in 2005, it switched to a full 24 hour schedule in 2012. The channel is free and ad-supported, broadcasting local Vienna news around the clock alongside city culture such as the Popfest Wien festival and the Fasching carnival, regional sport and local magazine shows. You can watch it free at w24.at and via its app, as well as on Joyn, simpli.tv and Austrian cable.

simpli is an Austrian television service operated by ORS, the broadcast arm of public broadcaster ORF. It bundles three ways to watch: antenna reception over DVB-T2, satellite and live streaming through the web and apps. Launched in 2013 as simpliTV, it was renamed simpli in October 2025 to put the streaming side front and centre. A genuinely free tier carries dozens of channels, most of them in HD, alongside paid plans that widen the lineup and add seven-day catch-up, the option to restart or pause live TV, and cloud recording. You can watch on the web, on iOS and Android, on Samsung and LG smart TVs, Apple TV and Fire TV. Picture quality tops out at HD and Full HD, with no 4K. The channels are licensed for Austria; EU rules let subscribers keep watching while travelling inside the Union, but from elsewhere you need a VPN connected to an Austrian server.

Kino VOD Club is an Austrian arthouse video service, run from Vienna by Cinema Service Platform GmbH and open to the public since 2017. Its catalog gathers more than 700 Austrian feature films, shorts, and documentaries with German subtitles. There is no subscription. Instead, you rent a single title on a pay-per-view basis: once you press play, you get 48 hours of unlimited viewing, and the film stays in your library for up to 60 days. One detail sets it apart: a third of every rental fee goes to an Austrian cinema you choose, so watching at home directly supports local theaters. The service is available in Austria only, through the web with Chromecast and AirPlay.

LT1 is the largest private regional broadcaster in Upper Austria, based in the state capital Linz. It has been on air since 1996, originally under the name TV3, and has carried the LT1 brand since 2001. The station is run by LT1 Privatfernsehen GmbH and is free and ad-supported. Its programming focuses on the region: news in OÖ Aktuell, local sport including OÖ Fußball and the HC Linz, plus lifestyle and cooking shows such as OÖ Life and OÖ kocht. You can stream it for free through the Mediathek at lt1.at and on YouTube.

TV1 Oberösterreich is the free regional channel for Upper Austria. It is backed by the Wimmer Medien publishing group, which also puts out the daily OÖNachrichten, and it has carried its current name since 2018, when it replaced the earlier BTV brand. The line-up mixes regional news under the OÖN-TV banner with magazines and lifestyle. You watch the livestream at tv1.nachrichten.at and, within Austria, on Joyn. Everything airs free in up to 1080p.

Tirol TV is a Tyrolean infotainment channel based in Innsbruck, Austria, best known for its flagship magazine show Tirol Today. Since 2023 it has been owned by Moser Holding AG, the publisher of the Tiroler Tageszeitung, and it belongs to the R9 Österreich alliance of regional broadcasters. Founded in 1997, it relaunched in 2014 after an insolvency. The channel is free and ad-supported, mixing infotainment around politics, society, sport and culture with reportages and regional news. You can stream it for free at tiroltoday.at and through the R9digital app.

KT1, also called Kärnten 1, is the largest private regional channel in Carinthia, southern Austria, based in the state capital Klagenfurt. It has been on air since 1999 and is run by KT1 Privatfernsehen GmbH. The channel is free and ad-supported, offering regional Carinthian news in Kärnten aktuell along with sport, culture and reportages. KT1 streams worldwide through its website kt1.at, and is also carried on Austrian cable and IPTV platforms including A1 TV, Magenta and the Astra satellite, as well as SimplyTV since 2025.

Ländle TV is the free regional channel for Vorarlberg, Austria’s westernmost state. Run by the Russmedia publishing house, it has covered the region since 2009 with magazine shows, news, sport, culture and local event coverage. You can watch the round-the-clock livestream or dip into the on-demand mediathek at laendletv.com, and clips also land on YouTube. A 24-hour broadcasting licence followed in 2013, with output in up to 720p.

R9 Österreich is Austria’s free-to-air national regional channel, bundling nine provincial broadcasters, one for each federal state. Its round-the-clock linear programme goes out via the ASTRA satellite at 19.2 degrees East, alongside a livestream at r-9.at and on Zattoo Austria. The project was founded in 2013 and has been on air since 2015. You can watch it free, with output in up to 720p.

Kanal3 is the free regional channel for Styria, focused on the Murtal and Judenburg area. It has been on air since 1995, originally as WKK Lokal TV before taking its current name in 2011. Viewers get a livestream and an archive at kanal3.tv and on YouTube, along with homegrown formats such as Steiermark Magazin, Treffpunkt Murtal and K3Sport. Everything streams free of charge, with no subscription needed.

RTS Regional TV Salzburg is the free regional channel for Salzburg state. It launched in 2009 and is based in Wals-Siezenheim. A 24/7 livestream runs at rts-salzburg.at, with video on demand delivered via HbbTV, covering news, culture, sport and documentaries. The station is a co-founder of the R9 alliance of regional broadcasters. Everything airs free of charge in up to 1080p. This is not the Swiss RTS.

Mühlviertel TV is a free regional channel for the Mühlviertel, a four-district area in Upper Austria. It used to run under the MF1 name and, since 2009, has been solely owned by Elisabeth Keplinger-Radler. The heart of it is a roughly hour-long weekly magazine, fresh every Friday, filled with upbeat regional news and stories. You can watch through native iOS and Android apps, with FireTV and AirPlay support along the way. Since 1 January 2025 it has been carried on the LT1 platform, in up to 720p.