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Austar takeover decision delayed

The ACCC has delayed its decision on whether Foxtel's acquisition of Austar should go ahead.

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The competition regulator has delayed its decision on whether the $1.9 billion Foxtel acquisition of regional pay TV provider Austar should go ahead.

The Age reports the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the announcement had been delayed ‘‘at the request of Foxtel to allow it to make further submissions’’.

The ACCC has previously said that the $2.5 billion bid “is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the pay-TV services market.

A decision was due to be announced on Wednesday.

23 Responses

  1. @Lloyd, get rid of foxtel and bring sky to Australia? Foxtel Is sky in Australia. They are both pay TV services that are part of the Murdoch/news corp empire. What you are suggesting is a name change.

  2. One of two things will have to happen…

    1. Foxtel take over Austar.
    Or
    2. Foxtel and Austar compete Australia wide, giving people the choice.

    Something has got to give, and soon. It cannot go on as it is for much longer.

  3. @ Scott – with Pay TV rates flattening internationally, and barely growing here, I doubt many companies want to get involved in the market.

    The next wave of companies for paid television will all be via the internet in some form. Especially if the NBN makes it to completion.

  5. It wont make any difference since Foxtel is just as horrible as Austar. Even if they do merge they will Never be Sky and Aussie Pay TV is clearly the worst in the world hands down. pointless adds, a childish censership that clearly is outdated and now doubt they were drunk and stoned in goverment when they thought this insulting cr*p up, no horror channel which is Standard on overseas cable as well as R18+ content not shown on the movie channels and butchered films that do nothing but insult my intellangence and shows Aussie Pay TV has zero respect for horror fans or the films we like. Get rid of both and bring Sky to Australia and above all Update the censership. This is 2011 for goodness sake Not 1995 get with the times Austar and Foxtel.

  6. My iq2 was also great for the first couple of years aside from dropping series records (which admittedly is better now). But now it becomes Very unresponsive to the remote control. And it’s not the remote control, which works fine on my friends box, and his remote (as well as my harmony) have the same problem with my iq2. I wonder if it’s still under warranty 3 and a half years later.

  10. FFS! It is bad enough that the ACCC delayed the decision three times already, let alone Foxtel now delaying it! Just put us Austar subscribers out of our misery already and tell us whether we have to continue to have sucky Austar or whether we can finally access the far superior Foxtel.

  11. The big issue here is – Why are there no additional pay tv providers in this country?

    When pay tv was first offered, the government invited tenders and intended to have three providers. Why did that not continue?

    Why is there legislation in place now preventing any competitors to Foxtel. There are a myriad of providers with masses of content wishing to compete in this sector yet they have consistently been denied licenses to do so. So much for the free market economy.

  12. Paul- are you talking about the SD box ( grey) or the HD box ? I had SD and it was terrible, totally what you describe. However, the HD box is very stable in comparison!

    As regards to the possible takeover, I agree with everyone else. I can’t see how there really is competition when I can’t access foxtel where I live. If it doesn’t happen I think regional people should ditch austar and ask a mate in metro area to get another box, buy a dish and split the bill! And trust me it happens now!

  13. We had Foxtel in W.A. and having moved to regional Victoria we now have Austar. The latter offers a much poorer service for the same money and an introduction of Foxtel to regional areas would allow us to access programming and features simply not available on Austar for a comparative price.

    As for the competition argument, Austar supply mainly Foxtel programming so the argument about reduced competition is simply ridiculous as no competition exists now.

    I can only hope the ACCC approve the deal and quickly but somehow I suspect the great December slowdown means we’ll be waiting til next year.

  14. Hope a decision is made soon so I can switch to Foxtel, because surely the Foxtel IQ is much better than the mystar I have at the moment, I have to reset it about 2 times a day, recordings fail, blank screens etc, the mystar box really is crap.

  15. Jengo, the iq2 may not crash repeatedly, but it certainly drops booked recordings repeatedly, amongst other shortcomings. Don’t always assume the gras is green on the other side.

  16. Like other I don’t see how there is any true competition right now as in all but a few areas you can only get Foxtel or Austar, you have no choice. I agree that a merger with likely bring Foxtel features to Austar customer. I just hope it’s not at higher prices or worse service.

  17. Hurry up and approve, so I can ditch austar and get a proper pay tv service, with a pvr that doesn’t crash 3 times a day and suddenly drops shows from my booked list.

  18. So um lets get this straight. Telstra from Foxtel…Optus featuring Foxtel…Austar sells all Foxtel channels to regional areas, Gold Coast and parts of the Hunter
    All 3 together make up 96% of the total Pay TV market in Australia.

    If Foxtel takesover Austar which features Foxtel channels how does this lessen competition in the pay tv market. If anything Foxtel is a monopoly

  19. Austar is pretty bad in comparison to Foxtel, it could only improve if Foxtel was to acquire the company. Austar on Xbox 360, better PVR, deals that include the PVR for free in the more expensive packages etc.

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