Modest subscriber rise for Austar
Floods and new digital channels from Free to Air broadcasters have been a battle for regional Pay TV broadcaster, Austar.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Subscription
About 10,000 Austar subscriber homes were severely affected by the adverse weather across eastern Australia, especially in Queensland, according to the regional Pay TV provider.
United Communications Ltd says subscriber numbers could fall in the first three months of the new year.
As a result of disconnections from flood-affected areas and consumer caution, CEO John Porter told analysts and media it could have negative subscriptions in the first quarter.
Pay TV providers also had to battle the new digital channels from free-to-air broadcasters.
“2010 was a year that had no shortage of challenges,” Porter said.
“I think you could probably safely say we sort of had everything thrown at us but the kitchen sink.”
Austar said it had 764,219 subscriber at December 31, 2010 – up about 3% from the prior year.
Net profit for the 12 months to December was almost 70 per cent to $99.7m and the bottom-line result was boosted by a $17.9m tax gain.
Customer churn was stable at 1.3 per cent and Austar was able to grow average revenue per user by 3 per cent to $85.08 by selling more MyStar set-top boxes and high-definition channels.
The broadcaster also has growing dissent from subscribers turning to social networking sites to demand additional channels, including SPEED.
Source: The Australian, AAP.
14 Responses
Austar/ Foxtel have the Worst call centre. initially this was one of their draw cards. A fine quality local service with excellent technical assistance. Now the call centre has been shipped off shore. The quality has fallen through the floor, the hours of operation are reflective on just how little existing customers are worth.
Do employees in the new Indian call centre realise that they are being employed because thay are cheap- not because they are good.
I love India and its people. I support the Australian call centre because of its quality. But clearly profits to shareholders are more important than service to its customers. I am giving up on Austar/ Foxtel. Endless repitition and overflow of advertisements combined with abismal customer service make pay tv a very unattractive offer
After being with austar 15 years to only watch motorsport and then we get no motorsport and not informed,its bye bye.Agree with most of the above,repeats,repeats,and more ads and more promos. i feel like i have been screwed over by austars arrogance.
While I like the idea of Foxtel and Austar competing in the same market and both trying to win the same viewers for their box I fear it would only lead to Austar going out of business and while in the short term prices might come down I think it would just end up worse with only Foxtel, and probably worse for country users.
We desperately need more genuine competition in this country with pay TV.
@Paul, it’s not that simple. They can’t just offer the same broadcasts they have in the US, as a lot of the programs (most of them) already have their broadcast rights allocated to other channels here.
And the problem with that is, a lot of those channels are owned by Foxtel or by Foxtel+Austar. So it would be a no-go from the beginning. Their services would be something akin to SelecTV. ie, a very much cut down service that isn’t competitive with Foxtel/Austar.
I put Austar on for my grandparents over the summer with the no lock in contract deal. Got the Works package at a huge discount the first month. They had never had Pay TV before. I don’t know whether all the channels overwhelmed them but all they saw it as was repeats. Grandpa liked the sport, grandma liked the Young and the Restless and some cooking shows. In the end all they wanted to watch was FTA. They were getting it free of charge (paid by me) yet they couldn’t wait to cancel it quick enough. I wouldn’t advise signing up to Austar unless on a no lock in contract. Not everybody can stomach it.
We need more competition in the Pay TV industry. I wish US companies such as DirecTV and Dish Network would set up shop in Australia. They have much more to offer than Foxtel and Austar.
I left Austar 5 months ago after 13 years with them.
It was great at the start, no ads just a few show promos every now and then, over time ads arrived and increased over the years.
After a few years I got sick of the same shows repeated endlessly, and didn’t like most of the new programs that came along.
Then more free TV channels arrived on my set top box, so finally chopped Austar off, I’m saving about $70 a month and I have multiple choices as to what to watch every night on free TV.
The few shows that aren’t on Free TV are very easy to get every week to watch.
I couldn’t be happier.
I was a foundation subscriber to what eventually morphed into Austar.
A gold package with two boxes – almost $130 per month.
Over the years they became arrogant, unresponsive, ignored their customers.
They didn’t even have the manners to acknowledge letters.
Finally I pulled the plug.
Two days after terminating the contract I received a phone call from someone in a call centre offering this “wonderful new deal”.
No ‘We’d love to have you back, we miss you, here’s a special deal’ similar to what Foxtel offers.
That was six months ago.
I don’t miss their attitude – or their commercials or promos.
Most of all, I don’t miss their exorbitant charges.
Thank goodness for the choice of the digital free-to-air channels.
Craig, Foxtel box works in an Austar area if you have friends or family in a Foxtel area… 😉
This is my last month with Austar, I have got it disconnected, bye bye, and with the internet and the digital FTA channels my family hasnt watched much pay tv in the last few months, so I am going to save myself a nice little packet to spend on other things yay, I wont miss you Austar, once you was a giant now you are a second rate company.
I removed the sports package, which I hadn’t used in the last year since most of the motor sport I watch is now on ONE HD.
@Travis – how can you get Foxtel or Austar, do you live in a crossover area near a city?
when i can get free to air tv austar will go like the dodo
I dumped Austar for Foxtel when they screwed motorsport fans with no Speed channel, best thing i ever did!
Six of the top ten highest paid Exec’s in Australia last year and they can’t afford Speed channel, pfftt.
why would you go away from pay tv – free to air is crap and will not change even with the extra channels