UPC Austria is following in the footsteps of its Swiss counterpart with a 47-channel digital package available free to all subscribers with a cable connection.
Telekabel TV Digital will sit alongside the established ‘free’ analogue offer and will include the HD channels distributed by the public service broadcaster ORF.
The package will be available to anyone with a DVB-C tuner – many modern TVs typically have such a tuner as standard – with no dedicated UPC MediaBox required.
Earlier this month Switzerland’s UPC Cablecom said it was dropping basic encryption to allow for a 55 channel basic package to be freely distributed.
UPC Austria says around two-thirds of its customer base regularly watch digital content.