SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[mistaTea]

Yeah my greenie friend falls in this category. He is a professional (wont say what profession) and loves his rugger and cricket. But he really is poor due to financial mismanagement on his wife's part. (always asking me for a loan to cover stuff like car needing a warrant etc). So he could no way afford a SKY bill. He will stream for life. Has done for the past 10+ years and I do not see anything that will stop him. Unless the courts start imposing large fines for end consumers that get caught streaming illegally.

Strategies will evolve over time I am sure to reduce the issue. A combination of carrot and stick.

More carrot though - make legally streaming content a 'no brainer'. But human nature being what it is, there probably does need to be some stick too - being poor does not allow me to steal a loaf of bread from my local dairy, and nor does it mean I can aquire enteretainment and sporting content I have not paid for.

I appreciate you are in agreement with me on this. I also have a particular friend of mine who pirates. He used to drive me nuts, because the crazy bs stories he would come out with to further justify why he streams illegally just blew my mind. He had clearly spent a lot of time talking himself into it. He earns great money as an IT contractor though, so it is not about money in his case. He was just a tight arsed thief who thinks of it as a victimless crime (he would not agree that streaming content illegally is the same as stealing a loaf of bread).

Anyway, I think I did convince him to subscribe to NEON to watch Game of Thrones etc without the moral hazard. So far as I know he still has his subscription...so there is hope.

[mistaTea]

Sky losing HBO is only a matter of time :

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/29/...ate-ui-gallery

Further to this... I dug out the last announcement from Sky regarding HBO...

https://www.sky.co.nz/-/mk_pressrelease_260318_2

At the end of March 2018 they announced their latest renewal deal with HBO. As these deals go for 5 year periods, Sky will have the rights to broadcast HBO content through to the end of 2023. So they still have about 4 years guaranteed.

Plenty can happen between now and then in this evolving industry - but any notion that HBO is about to drop off Sky TV/NEON screens imminently is scaremongering.

[oldtech]

Strategies will evolve over time I am sure to reduce the issue. A combination of carrot and stick.

More carrot though - make legally streaming content a 'no brainer'. But human nature being what it is, there probably does need to be some stick too - being poor does not allow me to steal a loaf of bread from my local dairy, and nor does it mean I can aquire enteretainment and sporting content I have not paid for.

I appreciate you are in agreement with me on this. I also have a particular friend of mine who pirates. He used to drive me nuts, because the crazy bs stories he would come out with to further justify why he streams illegally just blew my mind. He had clearly spent a lot of time talking himself into it. He earns great money as an IT contractor though, so it is not about money in his case. He was just a tight arsed thief who thinks of it as a victimless crime (he would not agree that streaming content illegally is the same as stealing a loaf of bread).

Anyway, I think I did convince him to subscribe to NEON to watch Game of Thrones etc without the moral hazard. So far as I know he still has his subscription...so there is hope.

Piracy has been around for decades in one form or another, in all forms of media. Go back a few decades and think people dubbing music tapes, then moving onto copying CDs and DVDs. I was into computers in the 80s and went to a Thursday night computer meet which I quickly found was almost entirely about people swapping pirated games.

The media and the methods change, people's desire to get something for nothing doesn't.

[mistaTea]

Piracy has been around for decades in one form or another, in all forms of media. Go back a few decades and think people dubbing music tapes, then moving onto copying CDs and DVDs. I was into computers in the 80s and went to a Thursday night computer meet which I quickly found was almost entirely about people swapping pirated games.

The media and the methods change, people's desire to get something for nothing doesn't.

Absolutely right, and the problem will never go away.

Nowadays it is an even bigger problem than people dubbing tapes back in the 80's and 90's.

It is a lot easier to get pirated content these days (you don't even have to be particularly IT savvy) and the quality of a lot of the illegal streams is very good (dubbed tapes could be pretty average a lot of the time from memory - it was a while ago!).

So you never get rid of the issue. But you can significantly dampen it by providing excellent platforms, at a fair price. Couple this with education (I do believe a lot of young folk stream illegally without having even thought about the moral hazard etc) and companies like Sky can still make a decent living.

I think Netflix has shown us this. Almost everyone I know has a Netflix account (I am a subscriber too). I know Netflix content does get pirsated too, but it is much less of an issue for them because most people prefer to use their platform. It is very reasonably priced, and an absolute pleasure to use from a usability perspective.

[Entrep]

No one has mentioned piracy either - that hasn't gone anywhere.

In fact I just looked and a popular SOHO series is showing episode 6 in the US today. That same episode won't play on SKY until next week. They are playing episode 5 this week instead.

Piracy is nothing new and in fact its often easier, more convenient and more timely that trying to pay for it.

Also mistea you mentioned that lots of people get SKY for entertainment also. I don't think that is the case and certainly can't be keeping in terms of trends - all the content makers are moving to their own platforms and other platforms like Youtube etc are only growing. I never used to watch Youtube but since having discovered a few channels I am really into watch a heck of a lot of it.

[Entrep]

I think Netflix has shown us this. Almost everyone I know has a Netflix account (I am a subscriber too). I know Netflix content does get pirsated too, but it is much less of an issue for them because most people prefer to use their platform. It is very reasonably priced, and an absolute pleasure to use from a usability perspective.

Netflix is also a global company with global tech, content delivery and global deals, and they are still making a loss with those economies of scale. Not sure how Sky could possibly hope to compete

[winner69]

Talk of dubbing tapes ...found my pile of Thomas the Tank Engine tapes the other day

Might wrap them up and give to kids for Xmas

[macduffy]

Talk of dubbing tapes ...found my pile of Thomas the Tank Engine tapes the other day

Might wrap them up and give to kids for Xmas

Then what will you do for entertainment, winner?

[mistaTea]

Also mistea you mentioned that lots of people get SKY for entertainment also. I don't think that is the case...

It literally is the case.

Of the almost 800,000 subscribers they have, less than half have Sky Sport.

And many of the subscribers who do have Sport will also have at least one of the entertainment options added too (SOHO, for example).

[blackcap]

It literally is the case.

Of the almost 800,000 subscribers they have, less than half have Sky Sport.

And many of the subscribers who do have Sport will also have at least one of the entertainment options added too (SOHO, for example).

I have it for sport, but for some reason I get SOHO and Soho 2 for free. Not complaining, great service on that front.