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Servus TV
Country	Austria
Transmitters	Untersberg
Headquarters	Wals-Siezenheim
Programming
Language(s)	German
Picture format	576i (16:9 SDTV); 1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Ownership
Owner	Red Bull GmbH
Key people	Ferdinand Wegscheider [de],; Dietrich Mateschitz (until 2022),; Dietmar Otti,; Christopher Reindl
History
Launched	17 September 1995; 29 years ago
Former names	Salzburg TV (1995–2009)
Links
Website	www.servustv.com

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.^{[citation needed]}

The TV station was sold in 2004 due to impending bankruptcy. In 2007 the shares went to Red Bull GmbH. The original owners sold their shares on the station soon after, and in 2009 the station was renamed Servus TV.^{[citation needed]} Its new name derives from a popular greeting used in many parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

On May 3, 2016, Red Bull Media House announced that it would cease broadcasting to prevent the establishment of a work council at the company. The Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz claimed that a works council would detract from the station's independence, and that the idea was brought forward "anonymously, supported by the union and the Chamber of Labor". On May 4, most employees expressed their opposition to the works council in writing and a video message was sent to Mateschitz asking him to continue the channel. On May 5, Mateschitz reversed his decision.^[1]

Political direction

The TV station has been associated with the political far right and conspiracy theorising.^[2]^[3] As part of the talk show “Talk im Hangar 7”, the leading figure of the neo-fascist identitarian movement IBÖ Martin Sellner was invited to a panel discussion on the topic "How dangerous are our Muslims?".^[4]

In his weekly commentary series “Der Wegscheider”, the director of Servus TV Ferdinand Wegscheider [de] spread controversial and unsubstantiated information about the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] This frequently took the form of posing rhetorical questions. For example, he explained that the vaccination was “insufficiently tested” and contained “genetically modified substances”. He further claimed that the administration of the antiparasitic ivermectin would be an adequate therapy.^[5] In 2021, the press club Concordia filed an official complaint against the broadcaster at the communications authority of Austria (Kommunikationsbehörde Austria).

A recurring guest of Servus TV was the microbiologist and corona trivializer Sucharit Bhakdi.^[5]

Availability

Servus TV is available via terrestrial transmission in Austria, as well as Europe-wide from the Astra 19.2°E satellite constellation. It is also available from the Swiss service Kabelio from the Hot Bird 13 satellites^[6]

Sports

Servus TV airs ice hockey on Sunday nights, with the Austrian Hockey League in Austria and the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany. It also airs the FIM MotoGP World Championship, and will add the UEFA Champions League and Formula 1 in 2021. It previously aired the World Rally Championship, Red Bull Air Race and Red Bull X-Fighters.

References

^ "Mitarbeiter unterschrieben gegen Betriebsratsgründung" [Employees signed against the establishment of a works council]. DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2021-12-21.
^ ^a ^b "Corona-Verharmloser, Impfgegner und Gates-Verschwörer schauen besonders gerne Servus TV" [Corona downplayers, vaccination opponents and Gates conspirators particularly like to watch Servus TV]. DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2021-12-21.
^ "Der Wegscheider: ServusTV ist auf dem Weg zum Heimatsender der Rechtspopulisten" [Der Wegscheider: ServusTV is on the way to becoming the home broadcaster for right-wing populists]. www.vice.com (in German). 29 October 2016. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
^ Leonhard, Ralf (2018-10-05). "Umstrittenes Sponsoring von Red-Bull-CEO: Verständnis für Rechtsextreme" [Controversial sponsorship from Red Bull CEO: understanding for right-wing extremists]. Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
^ ^a ^b tagesschau.de. "ServusTV in Österreich: Ein Sender für Corona-Leugner?" [ServusTV in Austria: a channel for corona deniers?]. tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-21.
^ Servus TV to launch SD and HD on Astra 21 August 2009 www.broadbandtvnews.com, accessed 21 December 2021