voy1d:
I don't know, Sky just really don't seem too intelligent these days.
TLDR: Team NZ took some commentators over for their own website but that didn't go ahead. So they said to Sky that they could use them. Sky had a few extra costs around engineers and equipment so tried to bill TNZ for them.
Sky attempt to serve Team NZ $70,000 bill for commentary
Sport is expensive to produce, it's not cheap and that is a large component of their costs. However, they drop the ball continuously by not moving with the customer wants.
An example would be that I would love to watch the State of Origin matches, but I can't justify $1,200 per year for it. I'd consider paying up to $30 for the three games (don't care much else for their current broadcast) but they have no way for me to pay for it.
Results in me finding it somewhere else and them losing revenue. They don't need to cut their costs dramatically, they just need to be smarter in how they do things - and given their current head in the sand attitude it's no wonder they are slowly bleeding customers.
There seems to be two sides to the story.. Sky CEO "charged" them according to the Herald, with no quotation, yet Kirsty Way (Sky spokesperson) said they didn't, with quotations. I thought Kirsty left Sky? She must be a contracted consultant to Sky then.