Pay TV

Subscription broadcasting (Pay TV) services provide programs of wide general appeal that are available only on payment of subscription fees. Pay TV services are funded by subscriptions and limited advertising revenue. Approximately 27–30 per cent of Australian households have a Pay TV service.

There are currently three main retail Pay TV service providers in Australia.

• Foxtel—currently delivers its services to mainland capital cities and major regional centres over Telstra's broadband cable network and via satellite. Foxtel has approximately 1.4 million subscribers.
• Austar—delivers its services to regional areas primarily via satellite. Austar currently does not offer its Pay TV service within 50km of mainland state capitals (plus Canberra) or to Western Australia. Austar has over 700 000 subscribers.
• Optus—resells Foxtel services over its own broadband cable network in metropolitan Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Subscriber numbers for Optus are no longer reported separately.

The subscriber numbers above are based on 2008 data.

In addition, there are a number of smaller operators including Neighbourhood Cable, UBI World TV, SelecTV and TransACT Communications that currently deliver subscription broadcasting and bundled services to niche and regional markets.

• Document ID: 8453 |
• Last modified: 4 February 2009, 1:37pm