The music & lifestyle media house TRACE has chosen A1 Telekom Austria Group to be its main technical distribution and contribution provider in the Asian market. A1 Telekom Austria Group will deliver the high-quality TV channels TRACE Urban and TRACE Sport Stars to cable and IPTV operators within the wide footprint of the APSTAR-7 satellite at 76.5° East.

Both channels are available in HD quality for viewers in Asia Pacific, Australia, and partially Africa. A1 Telekom Austria Group is also going to include music channels in some of its subsidiaries in Europe.

A1 Telekom Austria Group provides end-to-end technical broadcasting services to numerous TV channels & pay TV operators in the European, Asian, and U.S. markets directly from its teleport, Aflenz, located in Austria. TRACE TV channels are distributed in 162 countries via 220 carriage deals with leading cable, satellite, DSL, mobile, and OTT operators and are available on 27 satellites.

“We are excited about this new step for TRACE Urban and TRACE Sport Star in Asia and Europe. Our new partnership with A1 Telekom Austria Group on APSTAR 7 allows us to accelerate the distribution of the TRACE channels across a wide Asia-Pacific region and enhance our presence in Europe,” said Laurent Dumeau, International CEO and Group Chief Commercial Officer at TRACE.

“Our A1 Wholesale Broadcasting team is proud of this strategic partnership for the technical distribution of TRACE Urban & TRACE Sports channels in Asia. We are pleased to provide technical services and support the distribution of this exciting music content in Europe and Asia. We are looking forward to achieving great success together with TRACE”, said Elena Petrova, Head of Wholesale Broadcasting, A1 Telekom Austria Group.

Overall, the best-ranked telecommunications company and best Austrian company

The A1 Telekom Austria Group published its report for the business year 2019 as a combined annual report and sustainability report, as it has already done since 2017. Sustainability aspects are incorporated directly into the individual chapters or topics instead of covering them separately. Thus, the report allows an integrated and yet compact view of the economic, ecological, and social aspects of sustainable management. In the 24th edition of the independent best-practice study “Annual Report on Annual Reports” by “Comprend”, this report has now achieved extremely gratifying placements in both rating and ranking.

An external, international panel consisting of financial and communications experts analyzed and evaluated the categories “Communication & Style, Operations & Sustainability, Strategy & Leadership, Figures & Financials, and Investors & Governance”. After screening 1,000 annual reports, the panel gave the A1 Telekom Austria Group’s “Combined Annual Report 2019” an excellent rating (A-) and ranked it 55th, which also means best-placed telecommunications company and best Austrian company.