Subscription Television
Three of the four major providers of subscription television in Australia carry a common service; however they have a number of differences. Foxtel currently 'controls' the common service that Austar and Optus resell. This service is known as the Foxtel Platform.
Austar broadcasts into all of regional Australia (except Western Australia), Tasmania and Darwin while Foxtel broadcasts in all capital cities, the Gold Coast, the Central Coast and all of Western Australia until mid 2012 when Foxtel/Austar merge . Optus Television operates only in the small parts of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide where it has laid cable.
SelecTV is the fourth provider of subscription television, and is controlled by WIN Corporation. SelecTV is available throughout Australia via satellite and focuses on providing content in comparatively low priced packages to a number of specialised market segments; including Spanish, Greek, and Italian.
There are a number of other services that target specific language speaking groups, and regions in Australia. There are two small region based subscription television providers; TransTV Digital which is available in Canberra; and Neighbourhood Cable which is available in Geelong, Ballarat & Mildura.
There are also a number of satellite services that target specific language speaking groups, the largest being UBI World TV, a non-English language service. GlobeCast TV and Pan Global TV are non-English language, Christian and sport channel platforms that are controlled by GlobeCast (France Télécom). Various operators run their own subscription services on these platforms. In addition, there are other satellite subscription services available through other providers.
National IPTV operators include TPG IPTV.
Read more about this topic: Television Broadcasting In Australia
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