ATV

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ATV
Launched	1997
Owned by	Tele München Gruppe
Country	Austria
Broadcast area	National
Formerly called	W1 ATVplus
Website	www.atv.at
Availability
Terrestrial
Austria	available free-to-air on digital terrestrial television
Satellite
Europe	Astra 1M - 19.2° E Transponder: ?; Frequency: 12.692 MHz Polarity: Horizontal Encryption Systems (provided by ORF Digital): Betacrypt, Cryptoworks, Irdeto, Nagravision 2 and Videoguard.
Cable
Austria	available through all cable providers
Cablecom	Channel 036 (digital CH-D)

ATV is currently the largest commercial television station in Austria and was originally the first commercial station to be aired via transmitters after a long time when commercial broadcasts in Austria were only possible via satellite or cable and the national public broadcaster ORF held a monopoly of using the airwaves.

According to the current broadcasting legislation in Austria, ATV has to be transmitted nationwide alongside the two public channels ORF1 and ORF2 via digital terrestrial television and satellite as well as all cable companies in Austria have to provide at least these three channels to their subscribers. Satellite broadcasts are encrypted as are the ORF channels but it is possible to watch ATV by using the decoding cards issued by ORF. These cards can be obtained only by people living in Austria and paying the television license fees.

Other important Austrian commercial television stations available on digital terrestrial television, satellite and cable are Puls 4 and Austria 9 TV, although these have to arrange their broadcasting independently since they are not covered by the aforementioned Austrian television legislation regulating the two ORF channels and ATV.

History

From 1997 till 2000 the station was called W1 (Wien 1, named after the capital city Vienna) which initially provided only regional broadcasting via the cable network in Vienna. Starting in the year 2000, the channel adopted nation-wide programming and entered all the other cable networks in Austria and was renamed ATV.

In 2003, the channel started nationwide broadcasts using analogue terrestrial transmitters. The digital television transition started in Austria in 2006 and since then, ATV has been available on digital terrestrial television. In the 2003-2006 period, the channel was called ATVplus.

The analogue channels used by ATV were already allocated in 1972 when the introduction of a third nationwide TV-channel (either by ORF or by a commercial company) was discussed in Austria. These discussions actually lasted from the 1970s until 2003.

On December 1, 2011, a second channel called ATV2 (styled as ATV II) was launched. This channel is only available via cable and satellite and focuses on movies, culture, news and other additional programming previously not covered by ATV.

Shows

Own Production

About 40% of ATV's programming are in-house productions, whereas the other 60% consist of acquired shows, movies and serials.

Sitcoms and other serials

• Die Nanny, The Nanny
• Hör mal wer da Hämmert, Home Improvement
• King of Queens
• 24
• Alias - Die Agentin, Alias
• Andromeda
• Criminal Minds
• Bones
• Für alle Fälle Amy, Judging Amy
• Nip/Tuck
• Reich und Schön, The Bold and the Beautiful
• Lie to Me

External links

• Official website