SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[mistaTea]

Just do it alone over long period of time.

Better yet, do the Vodafone merger, and argue to the Commerce Commission that there has been a material change to the circumstances.

Agree that the Voda-Sky merger makes even more sense now than ever before.

But another attempt would predictably be protested by the other telcos...it should get through this time (one would think) but not sure if Infratil would be keen to go through the whole process. No guarantees!

A merged telco + content aggregator service company could offer even better pricing.

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/tv/vodafo...dband-package/

As it stands, if you have mobile with Vodafone you get an extra $10/month off your Vodafone TV sub.

So even if you subscribed to the 'Premium' option you can get all Sky TV channels + UFB for $186.66 per month (about $6 a day - which aint too bad).

If you just want Sky's entertainment offering it is more like $4.75 a day all in. And if you just want their Sport package then your combined internet + sports cost is about $4.80 per day.

The merger had so much potential, and consumers would have absolutely been better off compared to the current situation. With alternative entertainment options such as Netflix, Amazon Prime etc it was unlikely that Voda-Sky would have ever been able to price gouge.

I think the big blocker for the Comcom was the 'sport monopoly'. Well, Spark sure played them for fools!

[Ogg]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/new...ectid=12328874

Rushing to get Rugby competition underway this year.

[mistaTea]

https://www.nbr.co.nz/story/governme...d-within-weeks

New rules coming in soon to make foreigners trying to buy NZ companies demonstrate how it is in the 'national interest'.

That might help Sky avoid any unwanted foreign takeover advances while the SP is in the toilet.

[Ogg]

https://www.nbr.co.nz/story/governme...d-within-weeks

New rules coming in soon to make foreigners trying to buy NZ companies demonstrate how it is in the 'national interest'.

That might help Sky avoid any unwanted foreign takeover advances while the SP is in the toilet.

Sounds like bad news to me

[mistaTea]

Sounds like bad news to me

Not sure - it sounds like Australia already have this test.

Like all things, the devil will be in the detail - so we shall have to wait and see.

Obviously, if the net effect was that no foreign entity could ever buy a NZ business in practice then I agree that it would be negative.

If the extra test still allows for foreign investment, but does reduce the amount of good NZ businesses being so easily 'picked off' by deep-pocketed foreigners when they hit a rough spot and their SP dives then it could be positive.

Let's watch this space.

[mistaTea]

https://www.nowtv.com/smart-tv-stick

Interesting - Sky TV UK's SVOD service (NOW TV) offers a type of 'Fire Stick' so that their customers can have one portal to view Sky's content as well as competitors such as Disney+ and Netflix.

Old demo/review...they have since added other apps it seems...but gives an idea of how it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBrFsKDKTTo

Ideally you want to get to a point where you have deals with the likes of Netflix etc whereby you can actually aggregate their content with the rest of yours in one handy UI (as opposed to having to navigate to each app).

I don't know enough about App software to say whether this could be achieved easily with an application. You probably need some additional hardware with a bigger 'brain' to be able to achieve that I imagine.

Any developers on this forum who can shed any insights?

A future generation of Vodafone TV might be able to achieve that. Not sure if the Roku Now TV stick could ever do it.

[mistaTea]

https://www.theguardian.com/business...nge-sky-and-bt

Merger on the other side of the world to try and take on Sky.

[Ogg]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/new...ectid=12329089

The Warriors have finally gotten the green light from the Australian government to fly across the Tasman in time for the resumption of the NRL season.

Looks like sport is restarting in May.

[mistaTea]

For me currently I have a $98 a month sub. But I really only have SKY for sport. I cannot be bothered getting rid of the other stuff, and sometimes i do watch CNBC, the Mrs likes the MYSky ability to record channel 1, 3 etc and I do also like Fox and CNN. So I reluctantly pay the $25 extra.

After looking through the various reviews of the latest generation of Vodafone TV - they all seem to be overwhelmingly positive.

I pulled the trigger and purchased one - currently down to $129 on PBTech. You can also get it for $149 from Noel Leeming and get 4 months of Lightbox thrown in. As I get Lightbox as part of my Spark fibre plan, it was no use to me so I just went for the cheapest price for the STB.

Anyway, you might want to consider this Blackcap...works pretty much how your lady is used to on MySky, plus you guys can have all your apps on one platform.

You could subscribe to all of the channels you currently have and only pay $83/month instead of $98/month.

$83 per month works our to only $2.73 per day. Not bad really. Half a cup of decent coffee in Auckland if you're lucky!

[bull....]

Foxtel was struggling to survive before COVID-19 but the lack of sport is speeding up its demise

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-...ction=business