The 1995/96 season of the Austrian ice hockey league was played with a total of ten teams and, as in the previous year, represented the second division below the Bundesliga as a replacement for the national league that was not played . The defending champion was DSG Rotschitzen , but not this year more participated in the league. The new champions were EC Kitzbühel , which, however, could not make use of their right to promotion to the Bundesliga due to the lack of a suitable venue.
The field of participants remained essentially unchanged compared to the previous season . However, there were also three departures to report with champions DSG Rotschitzen and the last two last year ATSV Steyr and SK Zirl . HC Innsbruck , founded in 1994, was a new addition , with a total of ten teams taking part in the championship.
The clubs initially played a simple round-trip round in two groups of five teams each. The four best teams in each case qualified for the playoffs. All playoff series were played in best-of-three mode.
With the 2-0 win in the upper series, EC Kitzbühel secured the league championship, but was unable to advance to the Bundesliga due to the lack of an ice rink.
