With Eurovision 2025 now finished and the host city to be announced in mid-August 2025, a core team has been announced that will take on the duty under ORF to help bring the Eurovision magic together.
Who is in this Core Team?
The Core Team is made up of ORF representatives who will be overseen by executive producer Michael Krön. He will be reporting back to ORF, and he has also worked as Chief Producer under ORF before being made Executive Producer.
This Core Team is a lot smaller compared to the 13 members that were in last year’s Core Team, with this time there being 10 members, including Michael Krön, but it is higher than the 2024 team that SVT had, which was only six members.
Stefan Zechner – Has led the Austrian delegation within ESC since 2011 and was also a TV show producer for the 2015 contest that was in Vienna after Conchita’s win with Rise Of A Phoenix. He has once again been trusted in this role for the 2026 edition.
Daniel Hack – Will be taking on the role as Head of Production after previously working as Head of Production Management in the Multimedia Newsroom.
Christine Tichy – She will be working as a Technical Manager of the ESC Core Team, which will be involved with the technical elements of the contest after previously being an Assistant Production Manager in the 2015 edition.
Martin Szerencsi – Is reprising his role as Legal Advisor after taking on the same role in Eurovision 2015. He has also taken a hand as a rights expert in many other ORF TV series.
Roman Horacek – Will be overseeing communications for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 core team. He has been a part of the Austrian ESC Delegation since 2005 and was also Head of Press in the 2015 ESC Contest.
Iris Keutter – He will be taking on the role of Marketing Manager. He was previously in charge of the marketing after Austria’s victory in Copenhagen, along with being in charge of the marketing and sponsorship agenda within the 2015 contest.
Oliver Lingens – Will be an event manager who will be in charge of off-air activities, the logistics of the press centre and will be looking after delegations, the hospitality area, side events and security. He has previously been responsible for ticketing, location management and side events as part of the event team during ESC 2015.
Christina Lassnig – She is in charge of the Executive Producer as Executive Assistant, and this will mainly be towards the internal organisation.
Christina Heinzle-Conrad – She will be the Secretary General and will act as an interface to the ORF General Directorate.
The Journey to Eurovision 2026
The journey to the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest kicked off immediately following JJ’s win in Basel, when Austria’s ORF accepted the rights to host the 70th edition of the contest. At present, the Alpine nation has not addressed its plans for how it intends to host, but cities have already begun discussing their thoughts on hosting or not.
The cities that have expressed a wish to host:
The cities that have ruled out hosting:
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News Source: ORF
Photo Credit: Sarah Louise Bennett/EBU
Euan T 
Rory Gannon