| Type | Public (ASX: AUN) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Satellite television Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1994[1] |
| Headquarters | Sydney, New South Wales Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia |
| Key people | John Porter, CEO Mike Fries, Chairman |
| Products | Direct broadcast satellite, Pay television, Pay-per-view, broadband internet and wireless services |
| Website | www.austar.com.au |
Austar is an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity is Subscription Television but it is also involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1994 under the name Community Entertainment Television (CETV).[1][2]
AUSTAR's television subscriber base has grown to 747,148 (at 30 June 2010), the largest subscription television operator in regional and rural Australia. AUSTAR provides, of subscription television services in a service area of approximately 2.4m homes, one-third of Australia's total homes, primarily using digital satellite technology. AUSTAR also operates a digital cable network in Darwin
It is owned by Austar United Communications Limited (ASX: AUN). 54% of Austar United is owned by Liberty Global, through United Austar Partners. The remaining 46% is owned by public shareholders[3]
Austar also owns 50% of XYZnetworks, a pay television program provider, a 50-50 joint venture between Foxtel and Austar.[4][5]
Contents |
| Year | Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 300,000 |
| 2000 | 400,000 |
| 2004 | 443,000 |
| 2005 | 500,000+ |
| 2006 | 600,000+ |
| 2007 | 658,087 |
| 2008[7] | 713,000 |
| June 2010[8] | 747,148 |
AUSTAR's main business is subscription television, serving customers outside of the major metro areas. It takes programming from both Foxtel and Optus services, and operates on a digital platform.
AUSTAR Television is available in 2.4 million homes in regional areas of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia and all areas of Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Subscriber numbers to Austar Television are second behind Foxtel. Delivery methods include utilising the Optus C-Class Satellite Optus C1 and a digital cable network in Darwin.
AUSTAR Featured On Demand delivers new AUSTAR shows - on demand - to the MyStar each week free of charge with a MyStar subscription. With On Demand, you can sample programs not normally part of your package, catch up on shows you missed, uncover some hidden gems, plus see sneak peeks of upcoming programs.
AUSTAR AnyWhere™ is AUSTAR's online TV service, which lets you watch or download full-length programs online. You can catch up on your favourite shows, as well as access exclusive online-only channels to complement your TV package.
MyStar was launched to existing subscribers in late 2007, with a general launch to both new and existing customers in February 2008.[9]
The current MyStar is the model T500. It is a four-tuner set-top box equipped with two satellite tuners and two terrestrial tuners available both for viewing and recording standard definition digital free-to-air services including full electronic program guide data for Seven Network, WIN Television, Prime Television and Network Ten. (ABC, SBS and ABC2 continue to be provided via satellite). However, only two tuners can be used, owing to the fact the processor is not capable of handling all four tuners at once.
It features a 160 GB hard drive, with 120 GB user accessible. It can record 60 hours of content. Because it is equipped with Macrovision copy protection, content saved to the MyStar cannot be transferred to other media (such as VHS or DVD) without the use of something such as a video stabiliser. It has support for Time shifting for up to one hour.[10]
Support for Dolby Digital Surround Sound is available on selected programming when connected to appropriate equipment, however the Mystar box won't control the volume when using optical or coax, the volume must be controlled by the device it is plugged in to. It also has support for Closed Captioning and four different aspect ratios (4:3 Cropped, 16:9 Letterbox, 16:9 Postcard and 16:9 Widescreen). Both of these features are accessible through the remote's coloured buttons.[10]
It supports additional outputs not found on some of the standard decoders such as Component Video, as well as both coaxial and optical digital audio outputs. Support for Composite Video, S-Video and RF out are also available. It also has USB and Ethernet ports, but they have no clear function as yet, and are likely to be used for updating the decoder.[10]
The MyStar Remote is similar to the standard Austar Digital remote, but it has the addition of buttons specific to recording and playing back video. It shares an almost identical design to the Foxtel IQ remote, with the exception that it has an Austar button instead of a Foxtel button, and there is no AV button.
The next generation of MyStar, called MyStar HD, was launched on 15 November 2009, with installations beginning the following day. It has many advantages over its predecessor, most notably support for 1080i, HD programming. It includes a 320 GB hard disk, a doubling over the 160 GB found in the original MyStar. Only 160 GB of this is available for recordings and other user-selected content, with the other 160 GB being reserved for OnDemand content, which launched in early early 2010. MyStar HD also includes an HDMI output, allowing HD content to be viewed in its native resolution. It has a model number of T600.
Austar plans to use MyStar HD as its cornerstone set-top box, with true video-on-demand launched in 2010, and more access to web content becoming available after that time, building up to a complete interface redesign for its set-top boxes in late 2011 or early 2012.
MyStar has been having ongoing technical issues which have plagued the system since release; however, Austar have said that "they have a huge team of people that will actively jump onto any issues as soon as they are reported to the call centre". Some of the numerous bugs are The MyStar box regularly causes the screen to black out, recordings to fail, and the screen to freeze; it has also has been known to automatically switch itself off and on.[11]
Established in 2000, Austar Mobile offers mobile services via resale agreements with Optus [GSM] mobile network. After the closure of Telstra's CDMA network, Austar mobile will only offer services through Optus. AUSTARmobile, at 31 December 2009, had 19,970 customers.
Established in 2000, AUSTARnet currently outsources its network to COMindico and is available across Australia.
At 31 December 2009, AUSTARnet had 12,671 customers.
In August 2011, AUSTarnet announced its exit from the Internet business and indicated that services would be discontinued on 30 September 2011.[12]
Established in 2006, Austar Broadband operates as a trial network in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales[13] and Tamworth, New South Wales.[14]
Austar held the 2.5 & 3.5 GHz spectrum licences in regional Australia. This spectrum is ideally suited for WiMAX.
In 2005, Austar United and wireless internet provider Unwired announced a deal to swap spectrum under either company's control to allow for interoperable wireless broadband services across the country. In 2006, Austar United and Unwired together with Soul formed AUSalliance for the purposes of obtaining funding from the Australian Government's Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program and rolling out a regional broadband network.[15]
In 2008, Austar entered into an agreement to sell its 2.5 & 3.5 GHz spectrum licences to the OPEL consortium (Optus & Elders) for A$65 million and enter into a wholesale agreement with Optus for the resale of products operated by the OPEL consortium.[16] The sale was contingent on the OPEL network rollout, so was cancelled upon the cancellation of the OPEL network by the Australian Government.
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