AUSTAR

Infobox_Company
company_name = AUSTAR Communications
company_
company_type = Public (asx|AUN)
foundation = 1995
location_city = Sydney, New South Wales
Gold Coast, Queensland
location_country =
AUS
key_people = John Porter, CEO
Mike Fries, Chairman
products = AUSTAR Pay Television
AUSTARnet
AUSTAR Mobile
industry = Pay TV, Broadcasting, Telecommunications|
revenue =
num_employees = |755,000 as of Dec.'06
slogan = "You'll love what's on!" [http://www.austar.com.au/default.asp AUSTAR Homepage] and Logo (accessed 2007-09-06)] [http://www.austarunited.com.au/aboutus/default.asp AUSTAR United - About Us - Our Services] (accessed 2007-09-06)]
homepage = [http://austar.com.au austar.com.au]

AUSTAR is an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity is Pay TV, although it is also involved with internet access and mobile phones. It commenced operations in 1995.

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 [Austar United Website: http://www.austarunited.com.au/aboutus/ownership.asp]

Austar, along with Galaxy provided the Sega Channel for the Sega Mega Drive, but Austar was the only provider for Sega Channel after Galaxy's closure in 1995.

AUSTAR also owns 50% of XYZnetworks, a pay television program provider, a 50-50 joint venture between Foxtel and Austar. [XYZnetworks Website: http://www.xyznetworks.com.au/xyznetworks/About.aspx] Austar United 2005 Annual Report]

Mobile telephony (AUSTAR Mobile)

Established in 2000, AUSTAR Mobile offers mobile services via resale agreements with Optus and Telstra to their GSM and CDMA mobile networks respectively. After the closure of Telstra's CDMA network, AUSTAR mobile will only offer services through Optus.

At the end of 2005, there were about 31,500 customers.At the end of the 2007 Financial year, customer numbers had grown to 31,961.http://www.austarunited.com.au/aboutus/default.asp Austar United - About us

Dial-up internet (AUSTARnet)

Established in 2000, AUSTARnet currently outsources its network to COMindico and is available across Australia.

At the end of 2005, there were about 38,326 customers. At the end of the 2007 Financial Year, customer numbers had fallen to 26,431 [http://www.austarunited.com.au/aboutus/default.asp Austar United - About Us] ]

Broadband Internet (Austar Broadband)

Established in 2006, Austar Broadband is only available in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales [Austar United Press Release: http://www.austarunited.com.au/pdf/06-06-08%20AUSTAR%20Broadband%20launch%20release%20-%20final.pdf] , Tamworth, New South Wales [Austar United Press Release: http://www.austarunited.com.au/pdf/06-11-28%20AUSTAR%20broadband%20arrives%20in%20Tamworth.pdf] and Gold Coast, (only available to staff.)

Until 2008, AUSTAR held a considerable number of 2.5 & 3.5 GHz spectrum licences in regional Australia that was previously utilised for the delivery of their former MMDS Service and for an ill-fated attempt at wireless internet through a joint-venture with Chello.

Austar/Unwired Alliance

In 2005, Austar United and wireless internet provider Unwired announced a deal to swap spectrum under either companies 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 [Austar United Press Release: http://www.austarunited.com.au/pdf/06-03-29%20AUSTAR%20_%20Soul%20partner%20for%20regional%20b'dband%20network.pdf] .

Austar/Opel Agreement

In 2008, Austar sold its 2.5 & 3.5 GHz spectrum licences to the OPEL consortium (Optus & Elders) for AU$65 million and will enter a wholesale agreement with Optus for the resale of products operated by the OPEL consortiumAustar United Press Release [http://www.austarunited.com.au/pdf/08-01-07%20%20AUSTAR%20spectrum%20FINAL%20website.pdf] ] . It is uncertain what this spectrum will be used for as the Australian Government has cancelled OPEL's funding. Austar will continue to operate their two existing wireless services (Wagga Wagga & Tamworth)Austar Broadband [http://www.austarbroadband.com.au/] ]

ubscription television (AUSTAR Television / AUSTAR Digital)

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 in both analogue and digital platforms.

AUSTAR Television is available in 2.4 million homes in regional and rural areas of all mainland states (bar Western Australia),Northern and Western Queensland -Gold Coast to Cairns, Tasmania and the capital cities of Darwin and Hobart. 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's Television offering, as at September 2007 has 658,087 customers

AUSTAR Digital

Launched in March 2004, AUSTAR Digital subscribers account for about 75% of all of AUSTAR's Television Subscribers. In October 2004 the cable network utilised in Darwin was converted to allow the AUSTAR Digital product to be sold over that delivery method.

The "MyStar" Personal Digital Recorder

Announced in November 2005, Thomson SA have been awarded the contract for the development of a 4 tuner PVR, two of which will be dedicated for Australia's Digital Terrestrial free-to-air (FTA) service. MyStar will also allow for recording of two shows at one time, while still being able to watch one pre-recorded. The FTA tuner does not work in a blackout area.

Mr. Porter had announced that the MyStar personal digital recorder had been delayed back to August 2007 rather than the May 2007 release date they had planned. [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/austar-tunes-in-with-earnings-lift/2007/04/18/1176696914501.html Austar tunes in with earnings lift - Business - Business - theage.com.au ] ] In November 2007 the MyStar was released to people who nominated to be informed when it was released.

MyStar was launched to existing subscribers in late 2007, with a general launch to both new and existing customers in February 2008. [http://www.austarunited.com.au/press_view.asp?id=330 Austar United Press Release - MyStar revolutionises regional Australian TV] ]

The current MyStar is the model T500. It is a 4 tuner set-top box equipped with 2 satellite tuners and 2 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 160GB Hard Drive, with 120GB 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 mediums (such as VHS or DVD) without the use of something such as a video stabilizer. It has support for Time shifting for up to 1 hour.http://www.austar.com.au/mystar/mystar_um.zip]

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 optial or coax, the volume must be controled by the device it is pluged into. It also has support for Closed Captioning and 4 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.

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.

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.

Mystar is still having ongoing technical issues which have plagued the system since release, however Austar 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 numourous bugs are The MyStar box regularly causes the screen to black out, recordings to fail, freezing and has been known to automatically switch itself off and on. [http://warrnambool.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/costly-star-fails-to-shine-service-full-of-bugs/1322990.aspx]

Austar has also said that "a new update (known as L54) which they have been trialing, indicates this should resolve the following":
- Enhancements to recording reliability - less failed recordings and black screens.
- Significant enhancements to the reliability of Series Link on both Satellite and FTA channels.
- Recording listings in Planner will no longer need a reset to restore them if lost.
- Realignment of displays in the iSearch banner during trickmodes which will cause greater understanding for customers.
- Enhancements in video processing to reduce pixilation.
- Enhancements to EPG and Planner application stability while performing recordings at the same time.
- Enhancements to the Hard Disk Drive Usage Meter to provide a more accurate reading. [http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=57112&st=1000]

Channel Listings

Notes

External links

* [http://www.austar.com.au Austar webpage]
* [http://www.austarbroadband.com.au Austar Broadband]
* [http://www.austarunited.com.au Austar United webpage]
* [http://www.austar.com.au/mystar/ MyStar webpage]