VF and Sky?

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#1569572 10-Jun-2016 16:53

MikeAqua:

VF+Sky may offer consumers positive choices. For example might offer un-metered data for Sky OD or discounted package deals (UFB + TV + Mobile).

Bound to, yep, fully agree. They can work to encourage users to move to VF. What would concern the other 63% that don't use VF BB is how it will pan out for them.

radomatic

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#1569654 10-Jun-2016 18:18

tdgeek:

Lightbox = value add for Spark broadband.

I think you're absolutely correct - it is a great value add for their broadband and a point of difference in the market. One would hope it helps with churn.

But to be fair it's only recently become that. It appears Spark have changed tack with Lightbox a bit. It has gone from being their new thing (ie transitioning away from telco only and into digital services such as streaming) to being something to support their core business. Meanwhile they will not talk about its success.

Now I like Lightbox and I use it myself, but as a shareholder you do question the value of it. They only have ~27000 paying subscribers (not including Spark freebies) so a revenue of $300k a month.

I do think it will be interesting. Skodafone will be a monster and it will continue to dominate media rights.

radomatic

93 posts

Master Geek

#1569656 10-Jun-2016 18:21

Incidentally Sky will be seeing drops in their ARPU in the face of Neon being $20 a month and Fan Pass being $55 a month. Contrast that to their satellite service which starts at nearly $50 and only goes up from there if you add movies and sport.

I wonder how the costs involved in running the two services stack up. I'd have to imagine that tdgeek is exactly right and streaming will not be profitable for them either.

ockel

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#1569671 10-Jun-2016 18:36

radomatic:

tdgeek:

Lightbox = value add for Spark broadband.

I think you're absolutely correct - it is a great value add for their broadband and a point of difference in the market. One would hope it helps with churn.

But to be fair it's only recently become that. It appears Spark have changed tack with Lightbox a bit. It has gone from being their new thing (ie transitioning away from telco only and into digital services such as streaming) to being something to support their core business. Meanwhile they will not talk about its success.

Now I like Lightbox and I use it myself, but as a shareholder you do question the value of it. They only have ~27000 paying subscribers (not including Spark freebies) so a revenue of $300k a month.

I do think it will be interesting. Skodafone will be a monster and it will continue to dominate media rights.

Spark havent said how many subs that Lightbox has (other than exceeding its first year target of 70,000). Roy Morgan has Lightbox pegged at 128,000 (free and paying subs) in its December survey. From an accounting viewpoint Spark Broadband will be "paying" Spark Ventures for the freebies - transfer pricing between divisions. But at $20-35m spend per annum on content Lightbox isnt filled much by the subscribers to date.....

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ockel

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#1569673 10-Jun-2016 18:38

radomatic:

Incidentally Sky will be seeing drops in their ARPU in the face of Neon being $20 a month and Fan Pass being $55 a month. Contrast that to their satellite service which starts at nearly $50 and only goes up from there if you add movies and sport.

I wonder how the costs involved in running the two services stack up. I'd have to imagine that tdgeek is exactly right and streaming will not be profitable for them either.

Co-incident that Neon (20) +FanPass (55) ~ Basic (50) +Sport (30) ???

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

radomatic

93 posts

Master Geek

#1569709 10-Jun-2016 19:29

ockel:

radomatic:

Incidentally Sky will be seeing drops in their ARPU in the face of Neon being $20 a month and Fan Pass being $55 a month. Contrast that to their satellite service which starts at nearly $50 and only goes up from there if you add movies and sport.

I wonder how the costs involved in running the two services stack up. I'd have to imagine that tdgeek is exactly right and streaming will not be profitable for them either.

Co-incident that Neon (20) +FanPass (55) ~ Basic (50) +Sport (30) ???

I very much doubt that's a coincidence myself, but I would have to wonder how many customers subscribe to both?

radomatic

93 posts

Master Geek

#1569714 10-Jun-2016 19:34

ockel:

Spark havent said how many subs that Lightbox has (other than exceeding its first year target of 70,000). Roy Morgan has Lightbox pegged at 128,000 (free and paying subs) in its December survey. From an accounting viewpoint Spark Broadband will be "paying" Spark Ventures for the freebies - transfer pricing between divisions. But at $20-35m spend per annum on content Lightbox isnt filled much by the subscribers to date.....

I believe they are around 150k subscribers total right now, of which more than two thirds are courtesy of Spark broadband. I believe only approx 27000 actually pay for the service (so I am told). Spark has not ever stated subscriber numbers accurately, which implies they are probably not fantastic.

Spark Ventures is a black hole in Spark's accounting and probably rightly so given what Ventures was set up to do. They report that Ventures' financials are not material to the greater Spark business. I'd like to know how they stack up myself simply out of curiosity - although like I say, given Ventures is an incubator of sorts it's probably right to keep the financials under wraps and it will suck the capital (with no guarantee of returning a profit).

That said, Lightbox is a fairly mature business now - time to move it into Spark's HMB division and report it's numbers accurately?

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tdgeek

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#1569716 10-Jun-2016 19:36

radomatic:

ockel:

radomatic:

Incidentally Sky will be seeing drops in their ARPU in the face of Neon being $20 a month and Fan Pass being $55 a month. Contrast that to their satellite service which starts at nearly $50 and only goes up from there if you add movies and sport.

I wonder how the costs involved in running the two services stack up. I'd have to imagine that tdgeek is exactly right and streaming will not be profitable for them either.

Co-incident that Neon (20) +FanPass (55) ~ Basic (50) +Sport (30) ???

I very much doubt that's a coincidence myself, but I would have to wonder how many customers subscribe to both?

Fanpass is great. Its the lowest means to have Sky Sport, and I believe it fairly represents the real cost of sport.

Say they went SVOD, dropped satellite. Basic at 15, Sport at 55, Neon at 20, and reduce basic and Neon if you have sport. To say 10 and 10. How much savings from dropping Satellite Im unsure, it has to be reasonably large - ish

kornflake

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#1569723 10-Jun-2016 19:47

Just a point about the light box subscription, i have it on good authority that spark gave every spark employee ( including franchise stores) a free subscription, take that number out of the mix and it would be interesting to know how many people actual paid for light box.

ockel

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#1569732 10-Jun-2016 19:58

kornflake: Just a point about the light box subscription, i have it on good authority that spark gave every spark employee ( including franchise stores) a free subscription, take that number out of the mix and it would be interesting to know how many people actual paid for light box.

oh dear god, please dont tell me that after taking out the freebies and the employees that the number of Lightbox subscribers is not that much more than Neon subscribers? That would be the funniest s**t I've heard all day.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

oxnsox

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#1569744 10-Jun-2016 20:15

Whilst Voda-Sky say they will want to make content available to other BB providers, does this merger incentivise Voda to work harder on stopping people using UnoTelly and similar services?

MikeB4

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#1569747 10-Jun-2016 20:22

oxnsox: Whilst Voda-Sky say they will want to make content available to other BB providers, does this merger incentivise Voda to work harder on stopping people using UnoTelly and similar services?

They will protect the rights they pay for which is reasonable

radomatic

93 posts

Master Geek

#1569759 10-Jun-2016 21:01

ockel:

kornflake: Just a point about the light box subscription, i have it on good authority that spark gave every spark employee ( including franchise stores) a free subscription, take that number out of the mix and it would be interesting to know how many people actual paid for light box.

oh dear god, please dont tell me that after taking out the freebies and the employees that the number of Lightbox subscribers is not that much more than Neon subscribers? That would be the funniest s**t I've heard all day.

I can say with some confidence that Lightbox have around 27000 paying subscribers....

Roy Morgan's numbers are extremely accurate for Lightbox - it's just that most of the 128, 000 subscribers they report for Lightbox are freebies. Therefore it would not surprise me if their number for Neon was bang on too.

Edit: Sky say they have 43000 'other subscribers' which includes hotels/pubs/restaurants who subscribe to Sky, Igloo, Fan Pass and Neon.

radomatic

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Master Geek

#1569768 10-Jun-2016 21:07

tdgeek:

Fanpass is great. Its the lowest means to have Sky Sport, and I believe it fairly represents the real cost of sport.

Say they went SVOD, dropped satellite. Basic at 15, Sport at 55, Neon at 20, and reduce basic and Neon if you have sport. To say 10 and 10. How much savings from dropping Satellite Im unsure, it has to be reasonably large - ish

I think this is the way forward for Sky (whether they end up together with Vodafone or not). Certainly a merger with Vodafone will see this happen pretty quickly I feel - it makes sense for the combined company.

Satellite costs would be massive. Per Sky's last annual report broadcasting and infrastructure was $91 million for Sky last financial year. That is a substantial chunk of change. There's also the depreciation and amortisation present that relates to satellite broadcasting.

quickymart

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#1569771 10-Jun-2016 21:18

radomatic:

ockel:

Spark havent said how many subs that Lightbox has (other than exceeding its first year target of 70,000). Roy Morgan has Lightbox pegged at 128,000 (free and paying subs) in its December survey. From an accounting viewpoint Spark Broadband will be "paying" Spark Ventures for the freebies - transfer pricing between divisions. But at $20-35m spend per annum on content Lightbox isnt filled much by the subscribers to date.....

I believe they are around 150k subscribers total right now, of which more than two thirds are courtesy of Spark broadband. I believe only approx 27000 actually pay for the service (so I am told). Spark has not ever stated subscriber numbers accurately, which implies they are probably not fantastic.

Spark Ventures is a black hole in Spark's accounting and probably rightly so given what Ventures was set up to do. They report that Ventures' financials are not material to the greater Spark business. I'd like to know how they stack up myself simply out of curiosity - although like I say, given Ventures is an incubator of sorts it's probably right to keep the financials under wraps and it will suck the capital (with no guarantee of returning a profit).

That said, Lightbox is a fairly mature business now - time to move it into Spark's HMB division and report it's numbers accurately?

I wouldn't call Spark Ventures "a black hole" - Skinny does quite well, as does Bigpipe.

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