Vodafone TV retirement plan: September 2022

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#2835873 20-Dec-2021 10:28

Maybe a consequence of the separation from Vodafone group? Either group doesn't offer them the platform post turn off date or the cost to access it is prohibitive given it isn't making VFNZ much money?

mclean

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#2835877 20-Dec-2021 10:39

turtleattacks: We would almost willing to pay a nominal fee for the freeview, 3-day rewind and record feature.

For 3-day rewind, and ad-free viewing, then yes, definitely. Although some people continue to bag it, in my opinion we've been spoilt by having a unique product for a few years.

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#2835897 20-Dec-2021 10:57

turtleattacks:

We would almost willing to pay a nominal fee for the freeview, 3-day rewind and record feature.

We certainly would.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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#2835901 20-Dec-2021 11:10

Given the convenience of the VTV box and the limitations of current alternatives, I'd be willing to pay a subscription for the service to be retained with some features. However, I expect the chance that this might be considered by VF is close to zilch.

Surely there must have been an additional ongoing revenue from advertising, for the suggestions in the prominent "On Demand" area of the top-level menu - but evidently not sufficient.

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#2835903 20-Dec-2021 11:12

GSVNoFixedAbode:
ukoda:Worst they are now effectively telling people they are untrustworthy and could discontinue any service you buy from them so you probably look for a more reliable service provider.

They firmly cemented that reputation with me when they killed off the email hosting part of their ISP packages.

That was one of the best things they did closing down hosted email

IvanPiacun

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#2835921 20-Dec-2021 12:00

eracode:

turtleattacks:

We would almost willing to pay a nominal fee for the freeview, 3-day rewind and record feature.

We certainly would.

I certainly would be willing to pay a nominal fee as well.

Ivan Piacun CITPNZ

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#2835925 20-Dec-2021 12:08

I would be happy to pay as well already paying for SkyTV via VFTV

MikeB4

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#2835926 20-Dec-2021 12:12

I find it interesting that people are saying they would pay for rewind etc but for years I have seen post condemning Sky for charging a fee to record/pause etc.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#2835943 20-Dec-2021 13:01

MikeB4:
I find it interesting that people are saying they would pay for rewind etc but for years I have seen post condemning Sky for charging a fee to record/pause etc.

I also don't get the popularity with this function. So much is available on demand now, why do you need to record anything anymore? Being a TiVO fan, it took a while to move on, but I could never imagine going back to recording content again.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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#2835963 20-Dec-2021 13:42

Andib:

Tatou:

Anyone know if there has been analysis as to why VTV never reached market share to enable it to be profitable for Vodafone.?

You can almost guarantee VF has done the analysis but it will be commercially sensitive and likely never public.
It's hard to imagine how it would be profitable when the only revenue (apart from any margin they had on the STB) being the few percent they would get from reselling Sky.

IMO VTV is a hangover from the failed Sky merger, It was destined to fail as soon as that was stopped. VF has never really cared about TV ever since it inherited the platform from TCL.

I can assure you, we did analysis of the analysis, with our Director of Strategy and his team of analysts. Despite what some here have speculated, I can assure you we really do care (at all levels, including JP), we've read the SpinOff pleas, but the costs were just too high. We also can't generate enough revenue with VTV to cover the costs. @Andib has nailed it with his comment that VTV was a hangover from the failed Sky merger... we were left holding "the baby".

Reasons it isn't an option to continue:

1. Vodafone Group costs. The VTV platform is designed for large markets like Germany and Spain where Vodafone has many tens of millions of pay TV subscribers. The TV platform design could handle a significantly higher number of customers and the fees reflected that. While the large operators in Europe could share the infrastructure, Vodafone NZ had to implement much of the platform locally due to the cost (of content transport) and latency created by our geographic distance from the European instance. We therefore incur substantial costs locally with every update to the platform (release 6.0 was going to be amazing, in terms of features but also costs!).

2. Volume of paying users. While we did get VTV into over 100k homes, and VTV out-peaked even Netflix's all time peak on the Vodafone network (during 17 August 6pm news Level 4 lockdown announcement VTV peak vs Netflix all time peak), the majority of VTV users were Freeview only users.

3. Content costs. (this is also one of the key reasons, but as others have noted, we cannot discuss these)

4. Other confidential contractual conditions attached to our agreements with suppliers.

Hamish

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#2835965 20-Dec-2021 13:43

scuwp: I also don't get the popularity with this function. So much is available on demand now, why do you need to record anything anymore? Being a TiVO fan, it took a while to move on, but I could never imagine going back to recording content again.

So I can watch (say) the evening news on demand, an hour later, without the adds?

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turtleattacks

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#2835979 20-Dec-2021 13:59

I can assure you, we did analysis of the analysis, with our Director of Strategy and his team of analysts. Despite what some here have speculated, I can assure you we really do care (at all levels, including JP), we've read the SpinOff pleas, but the costs were just too high. We also can't generate enough revenue with VTV to cover the costs. @Andib has nailed it with his comment that VTV was a hangover from the failed Sky merger... we were left holding "the baby".

Reasons it isn't an option to continue:

1. Vodafone Group costs. The VTV platform is designed for large markets like Germany and Spain where Vodafone has many tens of millions of pay TV subscribers. The TV platform design could handle a significantly higher number of customers and the fees reflected that. While the large operators in Europe could share the infrastructure, Vodafone NZ had to implement much of the platform locally due to the cost (of content transport) and latency created by our geographic distance from the European instance. We therefore incur substantial costs locally with every update to the platform (release 6.0 was going to be amazing, in terms of features but also costs!).

2. Volume of paying users. While we did get VTV into over 100k homes, and VTV out-peaked even Netflix's all time peak on the Vodafone network (during 17 August 6pm news Level 4 lockdown announcement VTV peak vs Netflix all time peak), the majority of VTV users were Freeview only users.

3. Content costs. (this is also one of the key reasons, but as others have noted, we cannot discuss these)

4. Other confidential contractual conditions attached to our agreements with suppliers.

Having worked in a rival telco, and worked on several projects where there are many stakeholders including strategy, content and finance.

I bet it was a real tug-of-war between the finance team, strategy team and product owners.

Although I understand the details would never be made public, it would be such an interesting read for a nerd like myself.

----

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Apsattv

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#2836102 20-Dec-2021 18:51

Keep it going stick some google adverts on the menus, she'll be right!

Tatou

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#2836106 20-Dec-2021 19:28

Thanks Hamish for taking time to reply. I hope the Sky broadband STB is just as good as far as non Sky channels in terms of resolution and content i.e Freeview. I would give up Sky subscriptions currently got via VTV if the only option was external aerial.

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#2836115 20-Dec-2021 20:05

One of the real issues is clearly the number of users. And while there are people saying "we want a FTA streaming box" the reality is most people don't need a a device as they have a UHF aerial or satellite dish.

While I don't know true numbers it's my understanding that Dish TV total SmartVu sales are only just into the 5 figures. If true that really shows how hard it is to sell something in a market our size.

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