Austar was an Australian telecommunications company founded in 1995 as Community Entertainment Television (CETV). Its main business activity was subscription television. It was also involved with internet access and mobile phones.
Austar's television subscriber base grew to 747,148 (on 30 June 2010), making it the largest subscription television operator in urban and rural Australia. Austar provided subscription television services to 2.4 million homes, a third of all homes in Australia primarily using digital satellite technology. Austar also operated a digital cable network in Darwin.
Foxtel acquired Austar in 2012. Since the acquisition, Foxtel has progressively merged all operations into the national system. Starting mid to late 2013, Foxtel transitioned all accounts to Foxtel and removed the MyStar-related online services, which was the last step in the merge. In November 2013, the Foxtel IQ units were made available with satellite connections for those who wished to replace their MyStar units. The current Foxtel moniker took over all Austar branding in 2014, completing the transition. Austar provided services to Sega Channel in Australia in partnership with Namco Bandai Partners, a joint venture between Sega, Ozisoft, and Foxtel.
Foxtel takeover
On 11 July 2011, Austar announced that "it had entered into definitive transaction agreements with Liberty Global, Inc. (LGI) and Foxtel Management Pty Limited (Foxtel) under which Foxtel will acquire AUSTAR by a series of transactions including a scheme of arrangement (Scheme)." This takeover involved a minority shareholder approval on 30 March 2012, the approval of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission on 10 April 2012, and had approval from a Second Court Hearing. The Austar shares were suspended on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as of 16 April 2012, and were delisted from the ASX on 27 April 2012. The takeover was completed on 24 May 2012.
Subscription television (Austar Television/Austar Digital)
Austar's main business was subscription television, serving customers outside of the major metro areas. It took programming from both Foxtel and Optus services, and operated on a digital platform.
Austar Television was available in 2.4 million homes in regional areas of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia and all areas of Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Subscriber numbers to Austar Television were second behind Foxtel. Delivery methods include utilising the Optus C-Class Satellite Optus C1 and a digital cable network in Darwin.
On Demand (Featured)
Austar Featured on Demand used to deliver Austar shows–on demand–to the MyStar each week free of charge with a MyStar subscription. It has since been replaced by Foxtel On Demand.
Austar AnyWhere
Austar AnyWhere was Austar's online TV service, which allowed customers to watch or download full-length programs online. Austar Anywhere closed on 30 June 2013.
The MyStar personal digital recorder
MyStar was launched to existing subscribers in late 2007, with a general launch to both new and existing customers in February 2008.
The last MyStar was the model T500. It was a four-tuner set-top box equipped with two satellite tuners and two terrestrial tuners available both for viewing and recording standard definition digital free-to-air services including full electronic program guide data for Seven Network, WIN Television, Prime Television and Network Ten. (ABC, SBS and ABC2 continue to be provided via satellite). However, only two tuners can be used because the processor is not capable of handling all four tuners at once.
It featured a 160 GB hard drive, with 120 GB user accessible. It could record 60 hours of content. Because it is equipped with Macrovision copy protection, content saved to the MyStar cannot be transferred to other media (such as VHS or DVD) without the use of something such as a video stabiliser. It had support for Time shifting for up to one hour.
Support for Dolby Digital Surround Sound was available on selected programming when connected to appropriate equipment, however the Mystar box wouldn't control the volume when using optical or coax, the volume had to be controlled by the device it was plugged into. It also had support for Closed Captioning and four different aspect ratios (4:3 Cropped, 16:9 Letterbox, 16:9 Postcard and 16:9 Widescreen). Both of these features were accessible through the remote's coloured buttons.