SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[Ogg]

Infratil announce buy back...there goes a chunk of their cash.
20,000,000 shares
2.77% of their stock
Roughly $100,000,000
3.45mil saved on dividends.
Suppose it makes sense.
https://www.nzx.com/announcements/358383

Insurance, when the Sky takeover announcement hits.

"O No, they're buying Sky, I'm gonna sell my IFT now"

[Ogg]

Plan A for both companies was the merger. That failed.

Rather than appeal the decision they decided to do the current commercial relationship - it was the next best thing.

There is a big difference here - last time Vodafone did not have a comprehensive commercial arrangement for sky’s content. Now that they do, going through the whole ‘let’s attempt to merge...again...” may hold much less appeal.

The benefit may not stack up against the costs.

I am not saying that a takeover is not possible - I make no predictions in this space.

But I think it is also a bit ogg (I mean odd) to keep banging on like it is a ‘certainty’ when there is no real evidence to support that claim.

Who wants a lame outdated commercial arrangement.

Besides, you always get cuckold, just like when your partner decides to move into your own space and goes into broadband and mobile services.

[tqtq]

Who needs a takeover when we're a telecommunication company now, right?

Amen to that.

[tqtq]

I listened to the IFT Q&A...certainly nothing was said that indicated/implied they are sniffing around IFT.

In fact, Marko pointed out that Spark and Vodafone are following broadly similar strategies...except for marginal value add activities like entertainment content and live sport.

It certainly didn't sound like Marko was keen to get into the content business directly (it sounded to me like he is happy to keep the current commercial relationship with Sky for Vodafone TV, but that is as far as it goes).

They'll do offers to throw in Disney+, then the next promo will be free HBO. Like you say they're already offering Sky. Sky is standing on their own two feet, at least up until Comcast make a move.

[tqtq]

https://apple.news/AfqXgj8XMSoejwGE2brlQ4A

An analysts view of Comcast which own cable in the US and Sky Europe. My guess is he’d probably have a similar view of Sky NZ if he we’re to take a look.

Morningstar analyst Michael Hodel offered Comcast praise last week.
This year "is far from a normal year and seasonal swings have likely steadily diminished with the rise of online content options," he wrote in a report.
But "the sequential improvement amid the worst of the pandemic and sports shutdown provides some evidence supporting our view that the industry isn’t headed for a customer death spiral, a key element of our fair-value estimates and moat ratings across much of the media sector, including … Comcast."

Price to book (from memory):
Comcast: 2.3
Sky Tv NZ 0.6

*similar but comcast have telco, NBCU and other media businesses so not entirely apples to apples

[Ogg]

Gotta love these glassdoor reviews.

https://www.glassdoor.co.nz/Reviews/...iews-E7568.htm

https://www.glassdoor.co.nz/Reviews/...IM1178_IP2.htm

---

Sky TV

29 June 2020
Pros
Good place to work. Friendly atmosphere.
Cons
Management to know the vision of the company

10 May 2020
Pros
Fun place to work, good co-workers, dynamic industry
Cons
Getting disrupted and restructuring to cope

29 March 2020
Pros
Great people to work with
Cons
Blind and ignorant leadership lacking in diversity or skill to invoke change

20 February 2020
Pros
Fun industry, good camaraderie, lots of exciting initiatives in play
Cons
Facing significant disruption so under pressure

25 November 2019
Pros
flexible, big company, flexible, flexible, flexible
Cons
too many people work there, hard to push new change.

---

Vodafone

28 July 2020
Pros
Great employee benefits, diverse workplace
Cons
The company goes through frequent restructures

20 July 2020
Pros
Great colleagues good work life
Cons
Bad job security and layoffs

26 May 2020
Pros
Excellent people culture and working environment
Cons
Frequent restructuring that causes lack in confidence among staff.

11 May 2020
Pros
Awesome place to work at
Cons
Uncertainities in telco sector nowadays

16 April 2020
Pros
great environment, fun place to work at
Cons
management is quite stuck up

30 March 2020
Pros
Great Employee benefits Big office get to meet some great people
Cons
Unrealistic expectations from the management. Company says they are "agile" but only on paper. Very old system and IT. No forward thinking or planning for the future. Lack of strategy

23 March 2020
Pros
Big company, get to meet many people
Cons
management decisions are too poor.

9 March 2020
Pros
Some of the people are passionate. Agile-ish
Cons
Legacy KPIs. Removing bonus since going private

6 February 2020
Pros
People, people, people
Cons
Complexity of the legacy systems

27 January 2020
Pros
Great leadership and people, good culture, agile and fun to work.
Cons
lots of movement in the organisational structure.

10 November 2019
Pros
Great people; generous resources; inclusive.
Cons
Political; Slow; Averse to hearing feedback if negative.

20 October 2019
Pros
Free phone and plan,
Cons
Too busy ticking boxes and moving on to the next big thing without delivering

Working at Vodafone/Sky...

[Ogg]

The key themes experienced by past employees of both companies:

Layoffs/restructure/change/disruption

Time for these two dinosaurs to mate and make a baby.

[Quantitative Easing]

Interesting thread on reddit...

https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/...ibe_to_sky_tv/

[mistaTea]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertain...ectid=12358295

LOL.

Hmmmn, so a linear TV model is not completely outdated then? Netflix should be able to tailor the content to the user based on their viewing history which is different to Sky, but still an interesting development.

Sometimes it is nice to turn the TV on and have a content curator just decide for you

[Ogg]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertain...ectid=12358295

LOL.

Hmmmn, so a linear TV model is not completely outdated then? Netflix should be able to tailor the content to the user based on their viewing history which is different to Sky, but still an interesting development.

Sometimes it is nice to turn the TV on and have a content curator just decide for you

There are two other psychological things missing for it to work:

1) Other people have to be watching the same content at the same time.
2) There has to be a genuine feeling of not being in control.

What Nextfix has done is just a shuffle button. Which in itself is just another choice to make as you have to decided weather to turn it on or not. You're in full control.

People are more satisfied when their options are limited or non existent and there's a higher power making choices for them. They're also more satisfied when they see others doing the exact same. It's counter intuitive but true.

The best outcome is having no choice 80% of the time, then giving someone a choice for the remaining 20%.