On November 2, 2007, a number of Premiere channels will become available to viewers in Austria using the Cryptoworks encryption system by joining the ORF DTH platform. The German pay-TV operator has reached an agreement with the Austrian public broadcaster ORF and its subsidiary ORS, which operates the national DTH platform. This translates in an additional 1.1 million potential households in the country. Although Premiere has been available in the Austrian market, take up has remained limited because Cryptoworks is the de facto encryption standard as it is being used by the free-to-view ORF platform.
Although only Premiere Austria and Premiere Thema will initially be available, most Premiere channels will eventually join. Most likely, the channels on the Premiere Star platform, which uses Entavio, will also become part of the offer to Austrian viewers. New subscribers can use their current ORF smart card, which will be upgraded when people subscribe. The client relationship will remain with Premiere, which will also handle all sales and marketing activities for the pay channels. Current Premiere customers owning a Premiere Nagra receiver in Austria will not be affected.
