Satellite drives digital in Austria

Satellite is the main driver of digital television in Austria, according to figures from the Satellite Monitor carried out on behalf of SES-Astra by GfK. Astra’s digital satellite TV homes in Austria increased by 470,000 to 1.44 million households (+48.4%). Last year, Austria counted a total of 3.44 million analogue and digital TV households. The total number of satellite homes amounts to 1.90 million (55%); cable serves 1.25 million TV households (36.5%) and 250,000 (7.2%) households receive terrestrial television alone.

With an increase of 54.7%, the number of Austrian digital homes raised significantly last year and currently counts 1.81 million TV households. For 1.46 million digital TV households, digital satellite is the preferred reception mode, an increase of 45.5% compared to 2006.

170,000 TV homes are served by cable (9.5%); 150,000 TV households (8.2%) receive their digital programmes exclusively terrestrially. Currently, 40,000 Austrian TV homes (1.9%) receive digital television primarily via DSL. Just today, Telekom Austria said it has 20,900 IPTV customers on December 31, 2007.

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.