Servus TV

Servus TV is a TV station based in Wals-Siezenheim in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Its current name is derived from a popular greeting common to many parts of Germanic and Central Europe.

The station started as Salzburg TV in 1995 and was initially available only by cable in Salzburg. The TV station got media attention as it started terrestrial transmission on 25 October 2000, which was illegal at that time in Austria. The transmission facility, located at Untersberg transmitter (owned by Germany, but physically located in Austria), was confiscated by Austrian authorities after five days. As a protest, the owner of Salzburg TV entered a hunger strike for two weeks. As a response, 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 to prevent its 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 to Servus TV. The station started terrestrial transmissions in Berlin in December 2011 and in Hamburg in June 2014.