Sky TV
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<p>No surprises really....products on offer is reducing, cost still rising, been many years since I had movies, I turn sports on for ABs and NPC, otherwise have the basic package only, unfortunately I am in an area where I have to have a satellite just for Freeview (and given their boxes suck) I am pretty much paying for MySky (which I do like)</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/79689666/big-drop-in-sky-subscribers'>http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/79689666/big-drop-in-sky-subscribers</a></p>
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<p>Big drop in Sky subscribers </p>
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<div><span>LAWRENCE SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ</span></div>
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<p>With the Rugby World Cup now a memory, Sky is hoping events such as the Olympics will stem the flow of lost customers.</p>
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<p>Tens of thousands of Kiwis are switching off Sky Television's satellite service, the company has warned investors.</p>
<p>Sky's share price plunged 12.5 per cent within minutes of trading opening on the NZX in the wake of the warning.</p>
<p>The company forecast the number of customers for its core pay-TV service – which is priced from $49.22 a month – would drop by 45,000 in the year to the end of June.</p>
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<p>Sky boss John Fellet has delivered bad news to investors.</p>
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<p>The fall would be partly compensated for by a 25,000 rise in the number of customers who signed up to its generally lower-cost internet television offerings Neon and FanPass.</p>
<p>Its total number of subscribers at the end of June would number about 830,000, it said. </p>
<p>Sky has faced increased competition from other internet television services such as Netflix and Spark's Lightbox service.</p>
<p>A statement from the company said the forecast fall in core subscribers was due to a number of factors, but it highlighted the impact of the Rugby World Cup coming to an end, which had impacted "the roll off of subscriber contracts".</p>
<p>The company reiterated its 2016 result would be at the "lower end" of the guidance it provided investors in October and also warned the drop in core subscribers could see its 2017 profit come in below existing analyst forecasts.</p>
<p>"We do not expect the ... rate of subscriber loss to continue in [the year to June 2017] given ... the expected positive impact on subscriber numbers from upcoming major sport events, including the Rio Summer Olympics in August 2016 and the Lion's Tour in June 2017," it said.</p>
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<p>Sky chief executive John Fellet challenged the notion that internet television was necessarily less profitable than satellite television when he reported the company's interim financial results in February.</p>
<p>Sky's Neon service is priced at $20 a month, but Fellet said transmission costs were cheaper than for satellite television as customers paid for their own internet connections. </p>
<p><strong> - Stuff</strong></p> -
<p>We picked this when they refused stump up for the Black Caps tour of SA a while back. Given their main source of income is paying subscribers I said at the time this was a braindead way to run a business and that it would come back to bite them.</p>
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<p>The content is getting worse and the "big upgrade" of their software is fucking hopeless. They had a chance to really improve their service with that upgrade but at the end of the day fuck all has changed.</p>
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<p>They're hanging all of their hopes on the Rio Olympics and the Lions tour. That is in no way sustainable.</p> -
<p>I am a supporter of Sky, like the service and like MySky.... BUT.. the software upgrade has really pissed me off, so incredibly laggy and unresponsive at times. Bloody annoying.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Baron Silas Greenback" data-cid="577306" data-time="1462489972">
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<p>I am a supporter of Sky, like the service and like MySky.... BUT.. the software upgrade has really pissed me off, so incredibly laggy and unresponsive at times. Bloody annoying.</p>
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<p>I am finding the same. Power off/on the box helps a bit but after a day or so it starts lagging again. I think they over estimated the capacity of the existing hardware to cope with the upgrade.</p>
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<p>I do like Sky overall but they are not helping themselves at the moment.</p> -
<p>Eventually they will have to concede that their current model is outdated and start providing people with what they actually want. But while they still hold the sports card over everyone they can hold out.</p>
<p>The tipping point may well be when the fibre rollout is complete and the numbers of customers on excellent internet connections is high. That will mean that many more can take up streaming options and more and more sport will be lost to other providers. That will leave them with their self produced product (namely rugby in NZ) which by that stage will be being looked at closely by the NZRU to see how they can take ownership themselves.</p>
<p>The current fanpass stuff is hardly worth doing due to the cost ending up somewhere near a full sub if you watch a few games rather than pick out one a week. They may have to structure that a bit better.</p>
<p>The fact is that a huge number of customers would shift to a sports only package if the rate was less than being forced to buy stuff you don't want along with it.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Baron Silas Greenback" data-cid="577306" data-time="1462489972">
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<p>I am a supporter of Sky, like the service and like MySky.... BUT.. the software upgrade has really pissed me off, so incredibly laggy and unresponsive at times. Bloody annoying.</p>
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<p> As proof of how dumb they were in making that the trials done to test groups was at a hotel and using large HD TVs in small rooms. They were then perplexed why their average customer complained that they struggled to read the typeface on SD in their large rooms from a distance with sun coming in the windows.</p>
<p>Their explanation for the lagginess is that 'it is doing much more, though'. I don't care what the 'much more' is because it doesn't benefit me.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Baron Silas Greenback" data-cid="577306" data-time="1462489972">
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<p>I am a supporter of Sky, like the service and like MySky.... BUT.. the software upgrade has really pissed me off, so incredibly laggy and unresponsive at times. Bloody annoying.</p>
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<p>I haven't had any 'issues' with Sky or their service, it is more the content vs cost; I like the 'free channels', love MySky, also hate the upgrade, simple things like if you are in live pause, you go to change channel, you now have to do something else other than just change the channel...might be silly, but is annoying.</p> -
<p>I just got Foxtel hooked up, all the channels, HD ticket equivalent, free for 3 months through Telstra (and that comes with $12.50 tickets to the movies) and all for the cost of a $2.50 sim card.</p>
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<p>After 3 months I'll threaten to leave and see how cheaply I can get the sport package with HD for - a bunch of people on some forum I was reading about it are paying $35 for the same which is about half price. </p>
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<p>Sorry, doesn't help the Sky rant but I'm just happy to have Foxtel on the TV (have had FoxGo and our internet is shit, although funnily enough the day Fox was installed they announced NBN was now available in our place). :)</p> -
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="577313" data-time="1462492033">
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<p>I just got Foxtel hooked up, all the channels, HD ticket equivalent, free for 3 months through Telstra (and that comes with $12.50 tickets to the movies) and all for the cost of a $2.50 sim card.</p>
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<p>After 3 months I'll threaten to leave and see how cheaply I can get the sport package with HD for - a bunch of people on some forum I was reading about it are paying $35 for the same which is about half price. </p>
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<p>Sorry, doesn't help the Sky rant but I'm just happy to have Foxtel on the TV (have had FoxGo and our internet is shit, although funnily enough the day Fox was installed they announced NBN was now available in our place). :)</p>
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<p>Heard there are big issues with some deal Telstra have in the Aussie market now?</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="577320" data-time="1462494006">
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<p>Heard there are big issues with some deal Telstra have in the Aussie market now?</p>
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<p>I'm on the Telstra deal, I haven't heard of any issues - let me know so I can plan for them in case they effect me.</p> -
<p>I think the issues were more for those not with Telstra....</p>
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<p>That's an interesting set up, Taniwha rugby. Personally, I think the problem with Sky is that their basic package is pretty shit. I would love Soho but you have to pay extra. I quite like the news channels you get on Sky. I don't have kids so I don't need the cartoons. Discovery/history channel is basically all rubbish. Then you have stuff like food channels and all that.</p>
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<p>I actually think the $30 or so you pay per month for sport is excellent value. I probably watch about 2 Super Rugby games a week, a bit of soccer, the occasional league game, cricket internationals and the cycling highlights when its on. From my perspective, the sports package is fantastic value for money. The problem is to get the sports package you have to buy all this other crap which you don't want.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="577371" data-time="1462510324"><p>That's an interesting set up, Taniwha rugby. Personally, I think the problem with Sky is that their basic package is pretty shit. I would love Soho but you have to pay extra. I quite like the news channels you get on Sky. I don't have kids so I don't need the cartoons. Discovery/history channel is basically all rubbish. Then you have stuff like food channels and all that.<br><br>
I actually think the $30 or so you pay per month for sport is excellent value. I probably watch about 2 Super Rugby games a week, a bit of soccer, the occasional league game, cricket internationals and the cycling highlights when its on. From my perspective, the sports package is fantastic value for money. The problem is to get the sports package you have to buy all this other crap which you don't want.</p></blockquote>
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Better internet really changes things.<br><br>
Finally, J-sports released their sports on-demand - and the cool thing is that you can just buy a 'pack' for one sport. So, for about $20 bucks a month, I have all rugby that's being shown on their channels (4sports channels) - plus $10 for Netflix, and life is good :)<br><br>
Just thought I'd share. -
<p>Was going to ditch Sky, not because we cant afford it. Just because they are a bunch of fluffybunnies and our money could be better spent elsewhere.</p>
<p>Tapping into Netflix via VPN but with the crackdown (fuckwits) its not so reliable these days.</p>
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<p>Sooo for now we are still relying on using the piston wristed gibbons, at least until Netflix leaves me alone.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gt12" data-cid="577375" data-time="1462511852">
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<p>Better internet really changes things.<br><br>
Finally, J-sports released their sports on-demand - and the cool thing is that you can just buy a 'pack' for one sport. So, for about $20 bucks a month, I have all rugby that's being shown on their channels (4sports channels) - plus $10 for Netflix, and life is good :)<br><br>
Just thought I'd share.</p>
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<p>Yeah, Netflix and Lightbox are a lot better value than Sky Basic although you probably need unlimited broadband.</p> -
<p>I don't have a tv, and am on a limited data plan (5G) so don't stream. But my parents have the full Sky circus, and a few weeks ago when I was there to hog the free wifi to download Windows 10 (GGRRRRR) I flicked through all the channels. Dad loves the sport channels for rugby, cricket and golf, Mum loves the Living channel (but probably watches more TVNZ for Coro, Masterchef, Britain's got talent etc). Maybe the occasional movie, but fuck me days they play some shit.</p>
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<p>AS long as they keep adding channels nobody wants and upping the price, they are probably going to lose subscribers.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Mokey" data-cid="577398" data-time="1462518383"><p>I don't have a tv, and am on a limited data plan (5G) so don't stream.</p></blockquote>
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Wait what ?!?<br><br>
Do you live in a cave ? -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="577371" data-time="1462510324">
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<p><strong>That's an interesting set up, Taniwha rugby.</strong> Personally, I think the problem with Sky is that their basic package is pretty shit. I would love Soho but you have to pay extra. I quite like the news channels you get on Sky. I don't have kids so I don't need the cartoons. Discovery/history channel is basically all rubbish. Then you have stuff like food channels and all that.</p>
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<p>I actually think the $30 or so you pay per month for sport is excellent value. I probably watch about 2 Super Rugby games a week, a bit of soccer, the occasional league game, cricket internationals and the cycling highlights when its on. From my perspective, the sports package is fantastic value for money. The problem is to get the sports package you have to buy all this other crap which you don't want.</p>
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<p>??</p>
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<p>The basic package we watch a fair amount, Nat Geo, Discovery, kids channels, wife watches Animal Planet (find what you want on them in amongst the endless re-runs)....but agree on the fact you have to have all the stuff you dont want to get sports.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="577402" data-time="1462519130">
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<p>??</p>
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<p>The basic package we watch a fair amount, Nat Geo, Discovery, kids channels, wife watches Animal Planet (find what you want on them in amongst the endless re-runs)....but agree on the fact you have to have all the stuff you dont want to get sports.</p>
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<p>I suppose if you have kids it makes it a decent deal.</p>
