SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[Vaygor1]

A few week's ago, Sky's equivalent in Thailand, called TrueVision, lost the rights to the EPL for the 1st time in history too. It has been big news over there.

I can't help but wonder that there is something going on here on a wider scale.

Internet speeds and country-to-country fibre optic connectivity, technology, and live streaming in HD have continuously developed over time to surpass the quality and reliability of satellite based communications. Coupled with this has been the ongoing trend of urbanisation with more & more of the population moving into city centres with access to high speed internet communications.

Do we really need to rely on ugly roof-mounted dishes, satellites costing 10 squillion dollars per kilo to put into space, and countless re-runs of Happy Days and the Sound Of Music to watch an EPL match?... or any sporting match for that matter?

I am beginning to wonder if satellite based communications companies like Sky have had their day.

[CJ]

Cockram is one of the drivers behind the redevelopment of Britomart in Auckland.

And Cooper Capital Partners is a 50% shareholder which I assume is tied up with Cooper & Co - the developers of Britomart.

From what I am hearing Sky TV are not all that unhappy about missing out on the EPL. Apparently they weren't even the second highest bidder for the EPL.

They said it was the highest bid they have ever put in. Maybe that just proves they haven't had much competition in NZ before.

[CJ]

I'm with Vaygor, I think their current model is not sustainable long term.

The problem with the alternative to Sky is potential fragmenation. That is you have to pay $10 each to each different channel you want and in the end, the combined prices is more than what you would have paid Sky who bundled it all together and gave you a nice box which made watching it easier.

Eg. you pay $15 for HBO channel which is via an ipad app which you have to beam to your TV, Rugby is $10 via rugbytv.com with you get on you laptop so have to beam to your tv via a different method. You still have a freeview box so you can time shift the news and then Movies is via another service!.....

[CJ]

I'm not too sure of the answers for Sky, I am not that familiar with their business. What I can say its from a sports fan's perspective I think they are digging themselves a bit of a hole. They will lose a lot of customers as a result of the EPL deal, and I think unless they do something different, more and more sports fans will switch over to alternative options particulalry as internet speeds increase in NZ and online streaming quality iimproves.

I definitely agree.

The answer to the fragmentation issue is technology - ensuring you have a TV that has everything, ie Internet, built in. ON the assumption that it will all be avaliable on demand (internet bandwidth permitting - bring on fibre) then there is no need for DVR capabilities like MySky.

Personally I am looking forward to it. The only channel I want of Sky's is Soho (ie. HBO) and the option for pay for view movies (ie have Tivo which has this but the selection is terrible. I normally use my US iTunes account now). In a few years, paying for the cartoon network might also be on the cards as it is likely to be cheaper than a baby sitter

[hilskin]

Sky off to a bad start this morning. Shareholders not happy and wanting out.
Hopefully they are heading over to chorus.

[blackcap]

Its interesting that in NZ, Sky can still challenge web based content because we pay for our data. I have lived in The Netherlands for a while where for 20 Euro's per month you get unlimited internet data (500GB if you want it is not a problem) and the speeds are much higher. This has been in operations before 2006 and I know a lot of ppl there (as I did) watched TV on our laptops and did not even have a tv in house. Ditto sports events etc. Once NZ gets up to speed and it will but it will be a while things will change here as well. TV on demand is another such innovation that is only being held back by our ridiculous pricing system with data.

[lambton]

Yep Sky is death dated.

[RTM]

"young internet savvy population".....hopefully there will be plenty of older internet savvy folk as well.

The fragmentation needs to be addressed by technology....with luck by someone such as Apple who will provide an elegant solution. Whoever succeeds with an easy to use solution in this area will have an excellent product that would be widely accepted. They are getting there, but slowly. And internet speeds need to improve to make it a major success in NZ.

See link.
http://www.gadgetreview.com/2013/04/...omparison.html

As per CJ, bring it on. Its well past time that SKY had some real competition.

[CJ]

Word is, Telecom is involved - heard it on radio sport so not sure how legit the info is...
The suggestion being that telecom is looking to follow the BT model where customers of BT get the EPL free (or something along those lines)

I wonder if they are involved in the purchase, or just in the distribution (ie. an unmetered perk to get people to use choose them instead of others).
I hope that this isn't exclusive to Telecom customers. Ideally we want these sorts of things to be device/service provider agnostic.

[blackcap]

Word is, Telecom is involved - heard it on radio sport so not sure how legit the info is...
The suggestion being that telecom is looking to follow the BT model where customers of BT get the EPL free (or something along those lines)

Yeah I listen to radio sport as well. Interesting that they are so quickly on the ball. Good on them. Could be interesting times for pay per view subscribers coming in NZ in the next few years. I have had SKY in the past but really hated having to pay $60+ per month just to watch rugby and cricket and some tennis. What I did not like about SKY was their inflexibility in their pricing. You also had to have the basic package... something I just never used.