Sky TV

The Commerce Commission said ‘no’ to Vodafone and Sky TV last week.  It is fair to say that both Sky TV and Vodafone didn’t see that coming and it has left them reeling.  At the time, wondered “Why the need for one balance sheet?  Why not just partner up?”.

Feb. 27 (BusinessDesk) – Spark New Zealand has announced what it says is an exclusive deal with Netflix to offer bundled packages, just days after the Commerce Commission rejected Sky Network Television’s proposed merger with Vodafone New Zealand on the basis it would stifle competition, especially in access to premium sports content.

Under the Spark-Netflix tie-up, Spark broadband customers will get a one-year subscription to Netflix’s standard plan when they signed up to a 24-month ‘Unlimited Data Spark’ broadband plan, the telecommunications company said in a statement. The Netflix deal would “sit alongside Spark’s current Lightbox offer”, it said.

Chief executive Simon Moutter said the deal was “consistent with our shift towards becoming a digital services provider, rather than just a traditional telco.

Spark has an institutional understanding of making strategic partnerships.  Apart from the Xtra/Yahoo! one, which Telecom/Spark was seriously let down on, they generally add value to both partners without the need for complicated merger or takeover processes. Read more »

Sky TV [NZX: SKT] has confirmed to NBR that, having been unsuccessful in getting an injunction against Fairfax NZ over its use of Rio Olympics footage, it will now take its issue with the publisher (and recent entrant into the “video content space”) to a full trial.

Sky TV chief executive John Fellet told NBR Radio going to trial is the only way to get a resolution on the issue. Read more »

Winston Peters is on to another winner, free-to air-sports. 

Winston really is having a blinder at the moment, tapping accurately into middle New Zealand.

New Zealand should copy Australia and make “sport of national significance” available on TV for free, New Zealand First’s Winston Peters says. Is it an idea whose time has come – or an idea that’s now out of time across the ditch?

Most rugby fans would have been happy enough with the All Blacks’ win against Wales in last weekend’s first test, but New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wasn’t happy with the playing field for fans.

On Radio Live‘s website that day, he said the All Blacks could only be seen live these days by “the more cashed-up members of our society”.

Test tickets were too expensive and fewer than half of New Zealand households now subscribed to Sky Sport, which has had exclusive rights to broadcast live All Blacks games for nearly 25 years, he said.    Read more »

This is what happens when you align yourself with the big, but old and decrepit gorrilla in the room…you get shanked.

When you play with old and outdated monopolies you get bitten.

Catch up came for Sky and Duco on Saturday night. People are sick and tried of having their pockets raped.

Duco is talking tough and Sky is looking to make an example of bootleg boxing broadcasters:

Joseph Parker’s boxing promoter says he’s looking at his options after an illegal live stream was viewed by thousands for free on Facebook.

A page on the social media network streamed the match for free, while Sky TV’s Arena channel charged $49.99 for the pay-per-view event.

New Zealand heavyweight Parker won the International Boxing Federation (IBF) eliminator against the France-based Cameroon fighter Carlos Takam by a unanimous points decision over 12 rounds.

Duco Events will be working with Sky TV to find out who streamed the fight without permission, Duco co-owner Dean Lonergan said.   Read more »

via Sky Sport UK

An illegal live video of Joseph Parker’s heroic victory over Carlos Takam has been viewed more than 100,000 times, prompting legal threats from promoters.

The Saturday night fight, which saw Parker beat Cameroon-born Takam in a close points decision, cost $49.99 to watch pay-per-view on Sky TV’s Arena channel.

But tens of thousands were able to watch for free after Facebook user BeastMoze broadcast Saturday night’s fight using Facebook’s live video function.

Read more »

You are probably wondering why I put an advert from Facebook and Sky TV on this post. Well, look carefully, it shows how retarded their business model is when they are giving away free Wifi cables. Think about it.

Meanwhile people are leaving Sky because it’s too expensive, so Sky puts the prices up.  It beggars belief really. More retarded thinking.

Sky TV is to raise the price of its basic subscription package and its sports package despite a fall in the number of subscribers according to a report.

The monthly price of Sky Basic will rise by $0.69 to $49.91, while Sky Sports will increase by $1.61 to $29.90 a month.

On May 6, the pay-TV operator warned that subscriber numbers were expected to fall further this year, leading to earnings next year missing analysts’ expectations.   Read more »

I haven’t had Sky TV now for several months, and don’t miss it at all.

So it is with some bemusement that I read about Sky TV customers getting frustrated with the new update.

Thousands of disgruntled customers have complained about Sky Television’s “dumb” new software upgrade.

Angry and frustrated clients have taken to the network’s Facebook page to condemn the update as slow and causing the picture to lag. They say it has a small, difficult-to-read font.

One man’s post garnered 16,000 “likes” within hours. Most of the more than 2500 comments written below his post agreed with him.

Stewart Bryan wrote: “Your new upgrade to MySky is awful – a real backwards step. Smaller font I can’t read, terrible colours and so so SLOW to react.”

He said it “might be time to look at Netflix or others”.

Other people began re-posting his complaint to Sky, while many more offered their own complaints.   Read more »

Did you know Sky TV are part taxpayer funded?   In that case, don’t you think it is a requirement for Sky to answer questions on how they spend it, what they made, and how they are going to promote it?

Throng has the story:

WHAT DOES SKY TV HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH THIS BOYCOTT?

by Regan

Yesterday I contacted the wonderful publicity team at Sky regarding why we’d stopped receiving media releases from them. I was redirected to Sky’s Director of Corporate Communications, Kirsty Way. Late last night I received this reply.

Hi Regan,

We are no longer sending SKY updates to you. Content articles aside we’ve found your coverage of SKY inaccurate.

Thanks,
Kirsty

This isn’t the first time a TV Network in New Zealand has decided to boycott Throng. In 2011, TVNZ had a tanty over our commentary of a press release about Go Girls. Like the reasonable people that we all are, we sat down like grown ups and sorted it out and now our relationship is much better. Only last week I was called into Mediaworks to have a productive discussion around some concerns they had. Once again, things were resolved and the relationship is in good standing order. Read more »

The geniuses at Sky TV decided to blame Cricket South Africa for their failure to deliver for fans. 

That has backfired somewhat as Cricket South Africa cuts their throat by delivering up the cricket for free via live streaming.

Black Caps fans will be able to watch the two remaining one day matches against South Africa online for free after Sky TV failed to reach a broadcast deal.

Sky Television was criticised for failing to screen the first one day game in the series earlier this week, reportedly saying Cricket South Africa set too steep a price for the Black Caps’ games.

But in a statement released this evening, Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Haroon Lorgat said media reports “failed to accurately report the state of affairs”.

CSA has now announced that it will stream the games online live, and it will be free of charge to fans living in New Zealand only.

The live streaming will be hosted on CSA’s website: www.cricket.co.za   Read more »

The Black Caps are just as unhappy as their fan base that Sky TV hasn’t secured the rights for their tour of South Africa.

Batting coach Craig McMillan said New Zealand Cricket is extremely disappointed and the players, even more so. Read more »