Launched 1997 Country Austria Formerly called W1
ATVplus Founded 1997 Phone +43 1 213640 | Owned by Tele München Gruppe Broadcast area National Website www.atv.at Owner Tele München Gruppe | |
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Address Aspernbrückengasse 2, 1020 Wien, Austria CEO Martin Gastinger (1 May 2013–) Similar APA‑OTS Originalte GmbH, Österreic Volkspartei (ÖVP) Bu, Wiener Privatklinik, PULS 4, Gesellsch f Wasser‑ u Abfallwirt Profiles | ||
ATV is the largest commercial television station in Austria and was 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.
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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.
Another important Austrian commercial television stations available on digital terrestrial television, satellite and cable is Puls 4, 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 nationwide 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 available throughout Austria via cable and satellite whereas terrestrial broadcasts are limited to selected regions. ATV2 focuses on movies, culture, news and other additional programming previously not covered by ATV.
Own production
About 40% of ATV's programming are in-house productions, whereas the other 60% consist of acquired shows, movies and serials.