ockel:

everettpsycho:

tdgeek:

Ill throw this out there

 

 

 

Can Sky and Spark be frenemies?  They are going after the sports viewers, and ultimately there will be two sports services. Lucky people have their sports on the one service, most of us it will be split. They wont want me choosing just one service, as one of them will lose a sub, they may compete, but also work together to help subside me into having both services.

BT in the UK got a great arrangement with sky there when they went down this path. They somehow got their sport channels on to sky, if you were a BT broadband customer you could give them your sky details and it got unlocked on your sky box for free,. If you weren't a BT customer you could pay sky £10 a month.

They also then managed to launch their own TV service where it was pretty much a freeview box with IPTV channels added to the EPG for a monthly subscription, that included some sky only channels.

Overall it worked really well, it wasn't totally reliant on their old copper network and getting bt broadband and sky TV want much more expensive than getting sky TV with broadband bundled in so it drove a fair few customers BT's way

Really?  I was under the impression that if you werent a BT customer and you wanted BT Sports on your Sky box it cost GBP28/mth.  Can you elaborate whether it was the old ESPN content that you could get on Sky for GBP10/mth?  And when did the price change to GBP28/mth and why?

 

What were the Sky only channels that were included in the BT IPTV offering?

 

everettpsycho:

ockel:

 

everettpsycho:

BT in the UK got a great arrangement with sky there when they went down this path. They somehow got their sport channels on to sky, if you were a BT broadband customer you could give them your sky details and it got unlocked on your sky box for free,. If you weren't a BT customer you could pay sky £10 a month.

They also then managed to launch their own TV service where it was pretty much a freeview box with IPTV channels added to the EPG for a monthly subscription, that included some sky only channels.

Overall it worked really well, it wasn't totally reliant on their old copper network and getting bt broadband and sky TV want much more expensive than getting sky TV with broadband bundled in so it drove a fair few customers BT's way

 

 

 

Really?  I was under the impression that if you werent a BT customer and you wanted BT Sports on your Sky box it cost GBP28/mth.  Can you elaborate whether it was the old ESPN content that you could get on Sky for GBP10/mth?  And when did the price change to GBP28/mth and why?

 

What were the Sky only channels that were included in the BT IPTV offering?

 

It was a while back, I've not lived there for almost 5 years so not sure what changed in that time, but when bt sport first launched it was that price. I presume prices have increased steadily as they got more content as back then it was pretty much niche sports and a few premiership matches. They had to pay the champions League bill somehow.

The sky channels were about 10 of the core entertainment channels, so things like sky 1, gold, MTV, discovery, national geographic and a few others. They also had some kids channels. Again it's been 5 years so it's probably changed a bit since then. The youview box they gave away was pretty sweet though, you'd never have known it was being transmitted through the internet if you weren't paying BT.

Yeah that must have been pre 2015 before BT Sport added its extra channels and offerings.  Essentially from 2013-15 you were getting the old ESPN content that BT acquired when ESPN UK went bust plus the EPL package BT acquired.  Given that ESPN was previously on the Sky offering when it went bust Sky customers lost that content - but could pay BT to have it back with the bonus of a few EPL matches.  

So when the renaming of channels and the addition of extra BT sports channels came along it must have been accompanied by the price rise from GBP10 to GBP27/mth.  

Those sky channels offered as part of BT's Entertainment package havent changed.  And you still have to subscribe to Sport and fibre to get them.  Basically a carriage deal not dissimilar to the Vodafone deal.  Freeview + paytv channels all wrapped in a bundle.  

It worked for about 3 years until customer growth slowed and then went backwards for BT.  Hence the rush to sign the new cross-channel agreement late last year.  I dread to think the cost to BT in terms of tipping dollars down the drain only to decide to decide collaboration is better than competition.   Shame it cost the CEO his job in the end.

Batman: I'd like to watch f1 in 4K via a Spark app on my smart tv!

Batman: I'd like to watch f1 in 4K via a Spark app on my smart tv!

Id like to watch F1 on an app on my TV via ATV4 or any iPad.  The iPad 12.9 rocks

Senecio: As a Spark broadband customer who has recently canceled my Sky sub and signed up to Spark’s $30 a month Fanpass offer I’ll be interested to see how this is delivered. And what they will do with that offer once their own platform is up and running.

I used to use SkyGo on the second TV and the picture quality was appalling. I must say I’m really impressed with the quality of Fanpass (ATV 4K and a 4K TV). It’s only 720P but it’s a relatively high bit rate so my TV does a good job of upscaling it.

Good to know, just in case I move from Sky to Spark/Fanpass 

I find SkyGo fine, but thats on an iPad, which seems to be far better than via a browser

tdgeek:

Senecio: As a Spark broadband customer who has recently canceled my Sky sub and signed up to Spark’s $30 a month Fanpass offer I’ll be interested to see how this is delivered. And what they will do with that offer once their own platform is up and running.

I used to use SkyGo on the second TV and the picture quality was appalling. I must say I’m really impressed with the quality of Fanpass (ATV 4K and a 4K TV). It’s only 720P but it’s a relatively high bit rate so my TV does a good job of upscaling it.

Good to know, just in case I move from Sky to Spark/Fanpass 

I find SkyGo fine, but thats on an iPad, which seems to be far better than via a browser

tdgeek:

Batman: I'd like to watch f1 in 4K via a Spark app on my smart tv!

Id like to watch F1 on an app on my TV via ATV4 or any iPad.  The iPad 12.9 rocks

Senecio: As a Spark broadband customer who has recently canceled my Sky sub and signed up to Spark’s $30 a month Fanpass offer I’ll be interested to see how this is delivered. And what they will do with that offer once their own platform is up and running.

I used to use SkyGo on the second TV and the picture quality was appalling. I must say I’m really impressed with the quality of Fanpass (ATV 4K and a 4K TV). It’s only 720P but it’s a relatively high bit rate so my TV does a good job of upscaling it.

What options are there on Fanpass for OD? There is a lot of sport on Sky OD, is that also on Fanpass? (Minus Popups)

Spark has now added Hockey. The key point is that also includes producing the hockey telecast. I wonder if another sport that is a very popular NZ sport that is produced very well by Sky could be on the line? If Spark can do a top job producing the games.

tdgeek:

 

Spark has now added Hockey. The key point is that also includes producing the hockey telecast. I wonder if another sport that is a very popular NZ sport that is produced very well by Sky could be on the line? If Spark can do a top job producing the games.

 

Seems to me Spark have sports which will still result in churn?

I am thinking that a lot of their customers will be getting the sport as a tack on to prevent this?

As much as you can add the second tier of events and have the F2 etc, only the dedicated fans will watch it and NZ has a small population base of those.

As for producing the games, they may do a top job but the consumer actually seeing the top job is always the biggest issue.

Jas777:

 

tdgeek:

 

Spark has now added Hockey. The key point is that also includes producing the hockey telecast. I wonder if another sport that is a very popular NZ sport that is produced very well by Sky could be on the line? If Spark can do a top job producing the games.

 

 

Seems to me Spark have sports which will still result in churn?

 

I am thinking that a lot of their customers will be getting the sport as a tack on to prevent this?

 

As much as you can add the second tier of events and have the F2 etc, only the dedicated fans will watch it and NZ has a small population base of those.

 

As for producing the games, they may do a top job but the consumer actually seeing the top job is always the biggest issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spark sports is open to everyone. That's been stated, so it seems more of a business venture than a churn tool.

I'm thinking rugby. Sky produces rugby very very well. Sometime in the future if Spark has become a talented sports producer and rugby rights in NZ such as Super 14 etc are available, well, that's a real option

tdgeek:

 

Jas777:

 

tdgeek:

 

Spark has now added Hockey. The key point is that also includes producing the hockey telecast. I wonder if another sport that is a very popular NZ sport that is produced very well by Sky could be on the line? If Spark can do a top job producing the games.

 

 

Seems to me Spark have sports which will still result in churn?

 

I am thinking that a lot of their customers will be getting the sport as a tack on to prevent this?

 

As much as you can add the second tier of events and have the F2 etc, only the dedicated fans will watch it and NZ has a small population base of those.

 

As for producing the games, they may do a top job but the consumer actually seeing the top job is always the biggest issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spark sports is open to everyone. That's been stated, so it seems more of a business venture than a churn tool.

 

I'm thinking rugby. Sky produces rugby very very well. Sometime in the future if Spark has become a talented sports producer and rugby rights in NZ such as Super 14 etc are available, well, that's a real option

 

I understand that it is open to everyone but the sports they have are not a yearly thing and in some cases only happen every 2nd week.  What I mean is that people will be more likely to turn off and on if don;t get some sort of deal with other pricing of spark services.

As an aside to sports producer

Do you think that fact that a lot of harden rugby fans are rural people would have any effect on selling rugby rights?