SKY Network Television

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Sky Network Television Limited

Type	Public - NZX Code: SKT
Founded	1987
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Key people	John Fellet, CEO Peter Macourt, Chairman
Industry	Subscription Television DVD Rental
Products	Sky Television DVD Unlimited
Website	www.sky.co.nz

SKY Network Television Limited (ASX: SKT; NZX: SKT), often trading as SKY, was New Zealand's first pay television service and is at present, 2006, New Zealand's largest pay television operator. As of June 30, 2005, SKY had 619,168 subscribers.

1 Services
- 1.1 My Sky
2 Technical
3 History
- 3.1 2006 SKY Digital outage
- 3.2 Prime Television
4 Ownership
5 Channels
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Services

Sky Television operates both a UHF terrestrial pay television service on five networks of frequencies covering around 83 percent of the population and direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) service offering around 60 channels of programming. Sky TV plans to add many new channels to its lineup in the future and is currently one of the world's fastest growing and most successful pay TV operators per capita.

Sky TV's major focus is currently the implementation of an OpenTV based interactive TV platform and the digitization of its studios in Auckland.

Sky provides a number of channels to TelstraClear for their Cable Television offering.

Sky also owns part of an Online DVD rental service - DVD Unlimited in partnership with New Zealand's largest Internet Service Provider Xtra.

[edit] My Sky

In December 2005, Sky TV released its own Personal Video Recorder (PVR), which essentially is an upgraded set top box similar to Foxtel IQ in Australia or TiVo in the U.S.. Called My Sky, it offers viewers the ability to pause live television, rewind television, record up to two channels at once straight to the set top box and watch the start of a recorded programme while still recording the end. It also gives viewers access to a revamped Guide and the new Planner, used to plan and access recordings at the touch of a button.

Sky announced late 2006 that it will be using the 30% reserved disk space in the PVR to offer a video on demand service to its MySky customers. This service, commencing May 2007, will offer 12 - 15 titles at any one time. New titles will be downloaded automatically from the Optus D1 satellite to the PVR and listed only when they are available for purchase and instant playback. At the same time Sky will add a remote programming feature to MySky allowing customers to program their PVR's using the Internet or mobile phones.^[1]

[edit] Technical

SKY Digital subscribers get a standard 60-centimetre satellite dish installed on their home along with a set-top box (STB) used to decrypt the satellite signals. Digital broadcasts are in DVB-compliant MPEG-2. Interactive services and the EPG use the proprietary OpenTV system, with set-top boxes including modems for a return path.

Sky switched from the elderly Optus B1 to the Optus D1 satellite for its DBS service on 15 November 2006.

A configuration problem on D1 left Sky and FreeView with opposite polarisations requiring firmware updates on the Sky STBs.

[edit] History

Founded by Terry Jarvis, Craig Heatley,Trevor Farmer and Alan Gibb in 1987 as Sky Media Limited.

Sky Media Limited originally formed to investigate the possibility of beaming sports programming into clubs and pubs using high performance 4 metre satellite dishes by Jarvis and an engineering associate Brian Green but was redirected into pay television following successful bidding in 1990 for four groups of UHF frequencies in the Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga regions.

The first Sky subscriber was Jonathan Hunt, according to Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Sky rapidly won long term rights from US sports network ESPN (which become a 1% shareholder) as well as CNN and HBO providing it with a supply of sports, news and movies for three channels: SKY Sport, SKY News (a mix of CNN International and BBC bulletins) and SKY Movies (later renamed HBO, before reverting back to its original name.)

Initially only operating in the Auckland region Sky contracted Broadcast Communications to provide the broadcast service and transmission from its Panorama Road studios formerly owned by defunct broadcaster Northern Television.

Later, as funding allowed Sky extended its coverage throughout most of New Zealand, in 1994, SKY launched two further channels, Discovery and Orange. The company expanded to the Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Southland and Otago regions, follow by the Wairarapa, Taupo and Wanganui regions in 1995. Its final UHF expansion, in 1996, was to Taranaki, Whangarei and eastern Bay of Plenty.

In April 1997, SKY introduced a nationwide analogue direct broadcasting via satellite (DBS) service that would also give it the opportunity to offer its customers more channels and interactive options. It upgraded it to a digital service in December 1998.

The concept of a pay television service was new to New Zealand and Sky had early problems. These included viewer acceptance of subscriber television. It faced difficulty in educating retailers and customers on the use of the original decoders. However, this problem was eased with the introduction of easier-to-use decoders that allowed greater viewer flexibility.

Channels that are no longer carried by Sky TV include: CNBC, Granada UKTV, Hallmark Channel, TVSN and Property TV. A SkyMail email service was also featured for a time, but was later pulled without explanation (including the wireless keyboards they produced for it).

[edit] 2006 SKY Digital outage

The direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) service went offline just before 7 p.m. NZST (8 a.m. London, 3 a.m. New York) on March 30, 2006. The interruption affected service to over 550,000 customers and caused many decoders to advise customers of "rain fade." Due to excessive volume of calls to the SKY toll-free helpdesk SKY posted update messages on their website advising customers that they were working with Optus to restore service by midnight.

SKY gave the cause as a problem during a routine manouevre of the B1 satellite. Sky also blamed the total solar eclipse that occurred the same day, with the solar panels being in shadow and unable to recharge themselves. Astronomers said that it was extremely unlikely that there was any connection as the satellite would only have been in shadow for a few more minutes than usual if it was even in the shadow of the Moon at all during the eclipse. ^[2] Service was resumed at 8 a.m. (9 p.m. London, 4 p.m. New York) on March 31, 2006. ^[3] SKY will credit customers with one days' subscription fees as compensation for the downtime, at a cost to the company of NZ$ 1.5 million.

This outage prompted a New Zealander by the name of "Ben" to jokingly list the satellite as an item for sale on New Zealand's online-auction website TradeMe, eventually clocking up over 231000 page views and receiving much feedback and even mention in local media. It was listed with the description "One slightly used digital TV broadcast satellite. Seems to be misbehaving at the moment, unsure what the problem is, so bid at your own risk."

[edit] Prime Television

In November 2005, Sky announced it had purchased the free-to-air channel Prime Television for NZ$30 million. Sky will use Prime to promote its pay content and to show delayed sports coverage. New Zealand's Commerce Commission issued clearance for the purchase on February 8, 2006. ^[4]

[edit] Ownership

In July 2005, SKY Network Television Limited and Independent Newspapers Limited merged the two companies into a new company “MergeCo” which was renamed Sky Network Television Limited.^[5]. More than 40% of the equity is owned by News Corporation, an American company chaired by Rupert Murdoch.

[edit] Channels

This lists all current digital channels, including those available in UHF and Free To Air (FTA). Channel numbers for the digital service changed March 1, 2007.

Channel 0 Preview
Channel 1 TV ONE (FTA)
Channel 2 TV2 (FTA)
Channel 3 TV3 (FTA)
Channel 4 Prime (FTA)
Channel 5 SKY 1 (available on channel 7 in UHF)
Channel 6 UK.TV
Channel 8 The Living Channel
Channel 9 Food Television
Channel 11 E!
Channel 19 Māori Television (FTA)
Channel 20 SKY Movies 1 (available on channel 4 in UHF)
Channel 21 SKY Movies 2
Channel 23 MGM
Channel 24 TCM
Channel 25 Rialto Channel
Channel 28 Preview
Channel 30 SKY Sport 1 (available on channel 5 in UHF)
Channel 31 SKY Sport 2
Channel 32 SKY Sport 3
Channel 34 ESPN ^[6]
Channel 35 TAB Trackside (available on channel 8 in UHF)
Channel 36 The Rugby Channel
Channel 40 Disney Channel
Channel 41 Nickelodeon (available on channel 7 in UHF)
Channel 42 Cartoon Network
Channel 45 Playhouse Disney Channel
Channel 50 Playin'TV
Channel 51 MindGames
Channel 60 MTV New Zealand
Channel 62 Juice TV (FTA) (on UHF channel 57 in Auckland)
Channel 63 J2
Channel 64 C4 (FTA)
Channel 65 Alt TV (FTA) (on UHF channel 62 in Auckland)
Channel 70 Discovery Channel (available on channel 8 in UHF)
Channel 72 National Geographic Channel
Channel 73 The History Channel
Channel 74 Documentary Channel
Channel 75 Animal Planet
Channel 79 The Arts Channel
Channel 90 Sky News NZ
Channel 91 CNN
Channel 92 Fox News
Channel 93 BBC World
Channel 98 Weather Channel
Channel 110 Cue
Channel 111 Shine TV (FTA) (on UHF channel 56 in Christchurch)
Channel 200 SKY Box Office Events
Channel 201-216 SKY Box Office Movies
Channel 217 Playboy TV
Channel 218 Fresh
Channel 219 Spice Xcess
Channel 300-309 WTV
Channel 310 CCTV-9
Channel 315 STAR Plus Hindi

[edit] SKY Digital Music

Channel 400 NZ Chart
Channel 401 Pop
Channel 402 Smooth
Channel 403 Grooves
Channel 404 Jazz
Channel 405 House
Channel 406 50s & 60s
Channel 407 Party
Channel 408 Rock
Channel 409 Country
Channel 410 Classical
Channel 411 Kids
Channel 412 Blues
Channel 413 Theme

[edit] Radio Stations

Channel 311 Real Good Life Chinese Radio
Channel 312 New Supremo Chinese Radio
Channel 500 KIWI
Channel 501 Radio New Zealand National
Channel 502 Radio New Zealand Concert
Channel 503 Niu FM
Channel 504 George FM
Channel 505 Tahu FM
Channel 506 Calvary Chapel Radio

[edit] Interactive Services

SkyBet - interactive sports betting service.
Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) - Television listing information.
PlayinTV Games - video games.
MindGames - challenging video games.
Weather Channel - interactive weather maps and information.

[edit] See also

Optus fleet of satellites#Failures

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Cable, satellite and other speciality television providers

v • d • e

Fiber-Optic: Verizon FiOS

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Categories: Companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange | Companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange | New Zealand television networks | News Corporation subsidiaries