The German-Austrian media entrepreneur Herbert Kloiber has taken full control of Austrian private broadcaster ATV by acquiring the 42.44% share held by Austrian bank Bawag through his Tele-München-Gruppe (TMG) holding.
Austrian born Kloiber launched the channel in 2000 as a local private station for Vienna but it expanded to become a nationwide broadcaster in 2003. At the moment, ATV is the sole commercial challenger to public broadcaster ORF. But the scene is set to change on February 4, 2008, when Puls 4 will become the second national private station, now owned by the ProSiebenSat1 group.
A third channel will also launch in the form of TV9 Austria, owned by Burda and other investors. For the moment, only ATV and Puls 4 will have nationwide DTT coverage. All three channels will be available on cable and DTH.
