2007: Record Year for ASTRA in Austria

Satellite reaches 1.9 million TV households – more than 55 per cent of the Austrian population uses satellite

In 2007, ASTRA further increased the number of digital satellite TV homes in Austria by 470,000 to 1.44 million households (+48.4 percent). ASTRA thus is not only the infrastructure most used in Austria, but also the driving force and the motor of digital TV. In total, Austria counted 3.44 million analogue and digital TV households last year. The number of satellite homes amounts to 1.90 millions (55 percent); cable serves 1.25 million TV households (36.5 percent) and 250,000 (7.2 percent) households receive terrestrial television. While cable only slightly declined compared to the previous year, the terrestrial reception via antenna showed a significant decline of 130,000 households. These are the results of the latest “Satellite Monitor”, conducted annually by the market research institute GfK Austria on behalf of SES ASTRA. For the monitoring, 2,000 telephone interviews were conducted all over Austria at the end of last year. The methodology as well as the results were confirmed by independent institutes.

With an increase of 54.7 percent, the number of Austrian digital homes has raised significantly last year and currently counts 1.81 million TV households. For 1.46 million digital TV households, the digital satellite is the preferred reception mode, an increase of 45.5 percent compared to last year. Nationwide, the satellite therefore serves four of five digital households. 170,000 TV homes are being served by cable (9.5 percent); 150,000 TV households (8.2 percent) receive their digital programmes exclusively terrestrially. Currently, 40,000 Austrian TV homes (1.9 percent) receive digital television primarily via DSL.

In 2007, the switch-over from analogue to digital satellite reception has advanced significantly in the Austrian market. The number of analogue satellite households has decreased from 770,000 in 2006 to 440,000. In contrast, the number of digital satellite homes grew from 1 million to 1.46 million within one year.

“Austria is the number one among the satellite countries in Europe and continues to show outstanding growth rates”, said Wolfgang Elsäßer, Managing Director of ASTRA Germany. “With an increase of nearly 50 percent compared to last year, the satellite clearly proves to be the motor of digitalization. We have consequently enhanced our offer in the past year and now provide 374 digital TV channels for the Austrian market. With this variety of high-quality programmes, I am absolutely confident that we will be able to convince more and more viewers of our digital offer in the future.”