sbiddle:
Really goes back to the problem that the anti Sky brigade don't want to pay what is the going rate for sport. What many deem an "acceptable price" for viewing is very different to the real world, and with a small country like NZ the costs of big sport and such as rugby have to be recouped from general revenue as it could never stand by itself.
I don't believe it is just the "anti Sky Brigade" Sky operates in this market and therefore needs to price accordingly. In the last 18 months things have changed, we have underlying inflation which I believe is going to make itself felt very soon, we have increased taxation, sorry increased excise, we have the price of petrol being made up daily, we have the price of power increasing and the is list goes on. Wages in real terms have not gone up so pressure on family and individual budgets is increasing. Sky comes under discretionary expeniture and it is one area where folks can say no I am not paying that. Sky has a churn issue and I feel a big cause of this is folks trimming their expenditure where they can. With the loss of big sports events Sky will come under more scrutiny when families and individuals redo their budgets and the attractiveness of the Sky offering becomes less and less.