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Australian regional pay-TV service Austar has poured cold water on reports a deal to sell its WiMax capacity to Seven Network was “a foregone conclusion”.

However, Austar’s chief executive John Porter said one countrywide WiMax network would make sense and “should be well capitalised with the right partners who were capable of building a product”.

Austar has had discussions with Seven about “commercial opportunities” for its regional WiMax spectrum but Porter’s comments suggest the company is not about to sell. Instead, a joint venture could be more likely. Seven recently unveiled a friendly takeover of the Unwired wireless broadband company, which owns metropolitan WiMax spectrum.

WiMax allows internet protocol TV (IPTV) and other rich-media internet services to be streamed wirelessly, but as Rapid TV News reported last week, there is evidence that the technology interferes with satellite reception.

Porter also said last week that he did not view WiMax as a suitable technology for traditional on-the- TV viewing. Although as a WiMax IPTV platform would be a competitor to Austar’s curent service, there could be an element of defensiveness in that pronouncement.

Telco Optus is likely to be another suitor for the WiMax spectrum as it has won a governmment contract – along with rural services provider Elders – to build a regionl high-speed broadband network.

Austar announced TV subscription growth of 19,000 for the quarter to September 30, to reach just over 658,087 subs. The company said it would raise average prices by $4 a month with the addition of drama channel Showcase and sports channel Setanta as well as the national indigenous channel NITV to maintain its ARPU momentum – up 2.5% on the corresponsing quarter 2006 to A$76.33. EBITDA rose 33% A$46 million.

MyStar, the company’s PVR product, will launch for current subscribers before Christmas, with a public launch in 2008.