Servus TV is a TV station based in Wals-Siezenheim in the Austrian state of Salzburg and owned by Red Bull Media House GmbH, a subsidiary of Red Bull GmbH, which also publishes the magazine Servus in Stadt und Land. The station is the successor to Salzburg TV, founded in 1995 and rebranded in 2009. It is politically aligned with the far right.
In Austria Servus TV is distributed via DVB-T2 terrestrial television, the Astra 19.2°E satellites, as well as via digital cable provider A1 Kabel TV and some German digital cable networks.
History
The history of the station dates back to the first private TV station in Austria. Started as Salzburg TV in 1995, it was initially available only by cable in Salzburg. The TV station received media attention after it started terrestrial transmission on 25 October 2000, which was illegal at that time in Austria. The transmission facility, located at Untersberg (owned by Germany, but physically located in Austria), was confiscated by Austrian authorities after five days. The owner of Salzburg TV entered a hunger strike for two weeks in protest. As a result, terrestrial transmission of private TV stations was legalized in Austria, and transmission restarted in 2002 from the old transmission site on UHF channel 36.
The TV station was sold in 2004 due to impending bankruptcy. In 2007, the shares went to Red Bull GmbH.