SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[mistaTea]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12277521

That is a large chunk of shares voting against Martin's 800,000 share reward as part of his remuneration. Though it was strongly voted in favour for him to stay on the board.

Some investors firing a warning shot I suppose - they want to see results in a reasonable timeframe.

Personally I voted for his share allocation. Pay the man - it might not be reflected in the SP right now, but he really is doing a lot in a short period of time in my view. Plus it is more likely to align his interests with mine if he has a reasonable equity stake.

And turning a business around won't happen over night. Hold Management accountable, absolutely - but I also think investors need to have some patience.

[mistaTea]

In other news, I can't wait to see the revamped NEON and whatever the brand new service is that will allow you to stream Sky TV channels.

I imagine the latter will be Sky GO on steroids.

Then I will have a decision to make:

1. Do I keep going with Sky Sport NOW and a revamped (and probably rebranded) NEON ($54/month in total); or
2. Is a traditional SkyTV bundle more attractive in terms of usability and price now that they have an app for it?

I do miss UKTV, History Channel sometimes. Not enough to pay a small fortune to have a satellite subscription mind you, but I would definitely take a look if they offered a cheaper (relative to satellite pricing) streaming service.

Oh and a chap I was talking to who is deep in the NEON work promised me they definitely are working with Apple right now to get the upgraded version on AppleTV. Thank Christ for that.

[winner69]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12277521

That is a large chunk of shares voting against Martin's 800,000 share reward as part of his remuneration. Though it was strongly voted in favour for him to stay on the board.

Some investors firing a warning shot I suppose - they want to see results in a reasonable timeframe.

Personally I voted for his share allocation. Pay the man - it might not be reflected in the SP right now, but he really is doing a lot in a short period of time in my view. Plus it is more likely to align his interests with mine if he has a reasonable equity stake.

And turning a business around won't happen over night. Hold Management accountable, absolutely - but I also think investors need to have some patience.

Aren’t those shares a reward for staying ....doesn’t have to do anything else if I read it correctly

Seems if they didn’t pass this he would have got rewarded somehow.

[mistaTea]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12277490

Possibly the first balanced article I have ever seen Chris Keall write with regards to Sky.

Will be interesting to see if Sky enter the broadband (and mobile?) market directly...or find some other way to tighten their partnership with other providers and offer competitive bundles.

I still think Vodafone are charging too much for their bundles. They don't charge a set-top box fee (and now you can buy their VTV box outright for a one-off $179)... however if you want Sky Starter + Sport... you are still effectively paying about $56 for the Sky component.

That is what you would pay today as a Sky customer if they waived the MySky fee.

Yet Vodafone get wholesale prices from Sky. I would have thought they would start by offering Sky channels to their customers at cost as a way of making their broadband packages more attractive than Spark's to try and grow that business. Hell, maybe even offer it below cost initially to pinch a lot of broadband business from their competitors. Then review the Sky pricing component over time.

[mistaTea]

Taking my investor hat off for a moment, and replacing it with my speculator hat... (because, let's face it, it can be fun).

Philip Bowman did make an interesting comment at the AGM when the topic of takeovers/mergers and partnerships came up. He largely side-stepped the topic but did say that he hoped the Commerce Commission would think very carefully about future decisions they make, given this industry and technology etc is changing rapidly etc.

It did get me to thinking...

So, Sky have already got a wholesale agreement with Vodafone. Sky have also confirmed that they are involved in discussions with other players (telcos and power companies) with a view to offering them wholesale deals/partnerships too.

Vocus is one such player. Vocus offer their own wholesale pricing for their broadband/fibre networks. They also trade under the brands Orcon and Slingshot. Both of these brands bundle telco services with power.

So, two possible options spring to mind.

1. Sky enter into a wholesale agreement with Vocus to access their network, and go into the broadband market themselves. Sky in turn offers wholesale pricing for their Sky content so that Orcon and Slingshot can bundle that in with their telco and power offers. This would be a difficult path for Sky as it would be hard to see how their offering would be more compelling than Orcon and Slingshot given they are able to bundle electricity in with their deal too. Still, it is an option to diversify revenue streams.

2. Vocus purchases Sky TV. In the purchase agreement they provide ironclad assurances that Sky TV will continue to offer competitive wholesale rates to other players (just like how Vocus trade under their own brands but also wholesale their network to others). This enables Vocus Group to offer best in market bundles, while also removing any hurdles that might be presented when the Comcom review the deal.

What do other Sharetraders think? Is what I have described above feasible or just La La Land?

[ScrappyO]

Maybe IFT should buy Sky TV. It would be interesting to see if the commerce commission would allow it.

[mistaTea]

Maybe IFT should buy Sky TV. It would be interesting to see if the commerce commission would allow it.

Would make sense since the Vodafone-Sky synergies still exist.

So long as air tight (legally binding?) assurances that Sky will continue to offer wholesale rates to other companies, then I think it would be hard for the comcom to block it.

It was a 50/50 call last time, and things are different now that Spark have entered the sport arena so aggressively.

[blackcap]

Would make sense since the Vodafone-Sky synergies still exist.

So long as air tight (legally binding?) assurances that Sky will continue to offer wholesale rates to other companies, then I think it would be hard for the comcom to block it.

It was a 50/50 call last time, and things are different now that Spark have entered the sport arena so aggressively.

I picked up a few on Friday for the very reason that things seem to be moving rather quickly in the streaming/sport/entertainment space and some consolidation may be on the cards in the near future.

[mistaTea]

I picked up a few on Friday for the very reason that things seem to be moving rather quickly in the streaming/sport/entertainment space and some consolidation may be on the cards in the near future.

Maybe Infratil and Vocus can duke it out for ownership - shareholders might then get a halfway decent price for their shares.

One investor referred to us as "sitting ducks" right now (she was giving the new Chairman a bit of a rev up, and warned him not to give the company away for pennies on the dollar just because the SP is so low right now).

[Lola]

Maybe Infratil and Vocus can duke it out for ownership - shareholders might then get a halfway decent price for their shares.

One investor referred to us as "sitting ducks" right now (she was giving the new Chairman a bit of a rev up, and warned him not to give the company away for pennies on the dollar just because the SP is so low right now).

We might get a bit of a steer on these sorts of angles when the SSNs are posted resulting from last weeks large turnover volumes.