Austar
You'll love what's on!
|
|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | CETV, East Coast Television (ECTV) |
| Successor | Foxtel |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Defunct | 24 May 2012 |
| Headquarters |
Sydney Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia |
|
Key people
|
John Porter, CEO Mike Fries, chairman |
| Products |
Direct broadcast satellite cable television internet access (former) mobile phone (former) |
| Website | austar |
Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1994 under the name Community Entertainment Television (CETV).
Austar's television subscriber base grew to 747,148 (at 30 June 2010), making it the largest subscription television operator in regional and rural Australia. Austar provided 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 operated a digital cable network in Darwin.
Austar is now owned by Foxtel, which acquired the company in 2012. Since the acquisition, Foxtel has progressively merged all operations into a national system. In mid-to-late 2013, Foxtel merged all accounts to Foxtel and removed the MyStar related online services. This was the last step in the merge. In November 2013, the Foxtel iQ units were made available with satellite connections for those who wished to replace their MyStar units. The transition was completed in 2014, when all Austar branding was replaced with the current Foxtel moniker. Austar was involved with providing services to Sega Channel in Australia in partnership with Sega Ozisoft, a joint venture between Sega and Ozisoft.
On 11 July 2011, Austar announced that "it had entered into definitive transaction agreements with Liberty Global, Inc. (LGI) and Foxtel Management Pty Limited (Foxtel) under which Foxtel will acquire AUSTAR by a series of transactions including a scheme of arrangement (Scheme)." This takeover involved a minority shareholder approval on 30 March 2012, the approval of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on 10 April 2012, and has had approval from a Second Court Hearing. The Austar shares have been suspended on the ASX as of 16 April 2012, and were delisted from the ASX on 27 April 2012. The takeover was completed on 24 May 2012.
Austar's main business was subscription television, serving customers outside of the major metro areas. It took programming from both Foxtel and Optus services, and operates on a digital platform.
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Wikipedia