Sky

Pay television company in New Zealand

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October 22 2024 Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed a new partnership, maintaining Sky as the exclusive distributor of HBO and Max content in New Zealand. SoHo would be revamped as a linear HBO channel, with Max hub and HBO channel to be hosted on Sky Box, Sky Pod, and Sky Go.
2023 Prime TV was renamed to Sky Open.
July 2023 Warner Bros. Discovery renewed its HBO Max programme supply agreement with Sky, without confirming a new streaming service launch in New Zealand.
March 31 2023 Sky ceased broadcasting Disney's National Geographic channel.
March 31 2023 Sky TV ended its wholesale channel provision agreement with Vodafone (now One NZ), terminating the long-standing relationship after the previously proposed merger was rejected by the Commerce Commission.
2022 Sky removed Russian state TV channel RT from its programming in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, following customer complaints and consultation with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
June 24 2021 Sky announced a partnership with Discovery New Zealand to provide free-to-air coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon on channel Three.
June 9 2021 Sky announced an exclusive partnership with Disney, offering Sky Broadband customers a 12-month subscription to the Disney+ streaming service.
May 17 2021 Sky expanded its broadband service offering to new customers.
March 24 2021 Sky launched its broadband service, initially available only to existing satellite customers.
February 5 2021 The Commerce Commission cleared the sale of Outside Broadcasting to NEP New Zealand.
2020 Sky ranked Number 9 in the Top 10 Brands Delivering Brand Purpose in the Brand Reputation Index.
December 2020 Broadband service testing was expanded to a small group of customers.
December 1 2020 Martin Stewart left the company to return to Europe, with Sophie Maloney immediately appointed as the new CEO.
November 16 2020 Sky launched the bundled Sky Sport Now and Spark Sport subscription service at NZ$49.99 per month.
October 27 2020 Sky announced a partnership with Spark, bundling the Sky Sport Now streaming service with Spark Sport for a NZ$49.99 monthly subscription.
September 10 2020 Sky announced staff members, including then-CEO Martin Stewart, were trialing the new broadband service in their homes.
August 2020 Skywatch magazine was discontinued completely after moving to digital-only format earlier in the year.
August 12 2020 Sky announced the sale of Outside Broadcasting to NEP New Zealand, part of the American production company NEP Group.
July 7 2020 Lightbox was officially merged into the Neon streaming app, completing Sky's streaming service consolidation.
June 14 2020 Sky confirmed the merger of Lightbox into the Neon app, to be completed on 7 July 2020. The merged service would retain the Neon brand, use Lightbox's interface, and include content from both platforms.
May 21 2020 Sky announced plans to launch fibre broadband internet plans in 2021, raising $157 million from investors through a discounted share issue to fund market entry.
April 2020 Skywatch magazine transitioned from print to digital-only format.
December 19 2019 Sky announced its intention to purchase Spark New Zealand's streaming service Lightbox.
November 30 2019 Sky officially discontinued Disney and Disney Junior channels following the Disney+ launch.
November 28 2019 Sky announced TVNZ as its free-to-air broadcast partner for the 2020 Summer Olympics, replacing its own free-to-air channel Prime.
November 19 2019 Disney+ streaming service launched in New Zealand, leading Sky to discontinue Disney and Disney Junior channels.
September 2019 Neon restructured its packages, consolidating to a single TV & Movies package priced at $13.95 to better compete with other streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
August 22 2019 Sky signed a six-year agreement to become the naming sponsor of Wellington Regional Stadium, effective from 1 January 2020.
August 16 2019 Sky purchased Coliseum Sports Media's global rugby streaming service RugbyPass for approximately US$40 million.
August 14 2019 Sky re-branded Fan Pass as Sky Sport Now, expanding the service to include live streams for all 10 Sky Sport channels, highlights, on demand content, match statistics, and points tables. The service offers week, month, and 12-month pass options with separate Pay-Per-View event purchases.
March 2019 Sky completed the upgrade of transponders to H.264 video compression, enabling increased satellite channel capacity and potential future Ultra H.265 HD broadcasts.
February 21 2019 Martin Stewart replaced John Fellet as CEO, bringing experience from BSkyB, The Football Association, and OSN.
2018 Sky 1 rebranded as Sky 5.
March 2018 Sky TV CEO John Fellet initiated talks with Netflix and Amazon Prime to explore content and service sharing strategies.
March 26 2018 John Fellet announced his intention to step down as CEO after 17 years with the company, having served as CEO since January 2001.
February 2018 Sky TV announced splitting its Sky Basic service into two new packages: Sky Starter and Sky Entertainment, reducing monthly costs in response to competition from streaming services.
2016 Sky dropped two places to last place (number 25) in the NZ Corporate Reputation Index.
June 2016 Sky TV and Vodafone New Zealand agreed to a proposed merger, with Sky TV offering to purchase 100% of Vodafone NZ operations for $1.25 billion NZD and issuing new shares to the Vodafone Group, which would receive a 51% stake in the combined company.
2015 Sky was ranked at number 23 in the NZ Corporate Reputation Index based on the Deloitte Top 200 list of companies by revenue.
2015 Sky launched an online streaming service called Fan Pass, providing access to Sky Sport channels 1–4, including highlights on demand and Pay-Per-View events, with a special discount for Spark customers with unlimited broadband.
November 2015 Sky began replacing legacy standard digital decoders and original 2005 My Sky decoders with a new digital Kaon decoder, featuring built-in Wi-Fi and enhanced recording capabilities.
June 2015 Sky Sport: The Magazine ceased publication after eight years.
March 2015 Netflix launched in New Zealand, prompting Sky's streaming strategy with Neon.
February 2015 Sky launched its own subscription-based video streaming service called Neon to compete with Netflix, targeting HBO films and shows. The service was originally planned for launch in 2014 but was delayed due to system bugs.
February 2013 News Corp announced its intention to sell its 44 percent stake in Sky TV, which it had held since the 2005 merger.
July 2010 Sky purchased Onsite Broadcasting (later Outside Broadcasting) from Australia's Prime Media Group for a net amount of $13.5 million after liabilities.

This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Sky (New Zealand), which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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