ITV

Tag: John Fellet

  • Sky Television NZ and Vodafone NZ to merge to offer content

    Sky Television NZ and Vodafone NZ to merge to offer content

    BENGALURU: Sky Network Television of New Zealand and Vodafone New Zealand have agreed to a merger that that will enable offering customers packages of entertainment, broadband and mobile. Sky Network Television NZ has no connection with the European pay-TV company with a similar name. The deal will create a leading integrated player capable of delivering content across all platforms and devices.

    “The value of this transaction is bringing together two of New Zealand’s leading brands in their field. Together, we will serve 3.5 million customers. Video over mobile is the fastest growing field of our industry. I believe this combined entity will be in the best position to exploit this opportunity. With Vodafone we will be able to distribute our content to more customers with more devices than ever before,” said Sky CEO John Fellet.

    Vodafone NZ CEO Russell Stanners said: “The merger brings together SKY’s leading sports and entertainment content with our extensive mobile and fixed networks, enabling customers to enjoy their favourite shows or follow their team wherever they are.

    Subject to regulatory clearance Vodafone will have a 51 percent stake in the combined group through the cash and share deal that has an equivalent enterprise value of NZ$3.44 billion (€2.15 billion). Sky will acquire all of the shares of the mobile phone provider through the issue of new Sky shares and a cash payment of NZ$1.25 billion, which will be funded through new debt, and the rest in new Sky shares.

    The new Sky Network Television shares are to be issued at NZ$5.40 which represents a 21 percent premium to the last close of NZ$4.47 and a 27 percent premium to one month value weighted average premium (VWAP) of $4.25 as at June 7, 2016.

    Besides being the largest media company in New Zealan, Sky Network Television is the country’s largest subscription television operator with 830,000 subscriptions serving almost half of the country. It has exclusive sports rights including rugby, cricket, netball, the Rio Olympics and the next 2 FIFA world cups. 90 percent of the company’s estimated NZ$929 million revenues for 2016 are likely to come from subscription, with advertising contributing around 8 percent and ‘others’ the rest.

    60 percent of Vodafone NZ’s 2016 revenues of NZ$ 1,999 came from the mobile phone segment and it is a market leader with about 2.35 million customers. 40 percent of its 2016 revenue came from the 500,000 fixed line broadband and home phone subscribers.  55 percent of Vodafone NZ’s revenue comes from consumers,36 percent from enterprise and the rest from wholesale.

  • Sky Television NZ and Vodafone NZ to merge to offer content

    Sky Television NZ and Vodafone NZ to merge to offer content

    BENGALURU: Sky Network Television of New Zealand and Vodafone New Zealand have agreed to a merger that that will enable offering customers packages of entertainment, broadband and mobile. Sky Network Television NZ has no connection with the European pay-TV company with a similar name. The deal will create a leading integrated player capable of delivering content across all platforms and devices.

    “The value of this transaction is bringing together two of New Zealand’s leading brands in their field. Together, we will serve 3.5 million customers. Video over mobile is the fastest growing field of our industry. I believe this combined entity will be in the best position to exploit this opportunity. With Vodafone we will be able to distribute our content to more customers with more devices than ever before,” said Sky CEO John Fellet.

    Vodafone NZ CEO Russell Stanners said: “The merger brings together SKY’s leading sports and entertainment content with our extensive mobile and fixed networks, enabling customers to enjoy their favourite shows or follow their team wherever they are.

    Subject to regulatory clearance Vodafone will have a 51 percent stake in the combined group through the cash and share deal that has an equivalent enterprise value of NZ$3.44 billion (€2.15 billion). Sky will acquire all of the shares of the mobile phone provider through the issue of new Sky shares and a cash payment of NZ$1.25 billion, which will be funded through new debt, and the rest in new Sky shares.

    The new Sky Network Television shares are to be issued at NZ$5.40 which represents a 21 percent premium to the last close of NZ$4.47 and a 27 percent premium to one month value weighted average premium (VWAP) of $4.25 as at June 7, 2016.

    Besides being the largest media company in New Zealan, Sky Network Television is the country’s largest subscription television operator with 830,000 subscriptions serving almost half of the country. It has exclusive sports rights including rugby, cricket, netball, the Rio Olympics and the next 2 FIFA world cups. 90 percent of the company’s estimated NZ$929 million revenues for 2016 are likely to come from subscription, with advertising contributing around 8 percent and ‘others’ the rest.

    60 percent of Vodafone NZ’s 2016 revenues of NZ$ 1,999 came from the mobile phone segment and it is a market leader with about 2.35 million customers. 40 percent of its 2016 revenue came from the 500,000 fixed line broadband and home phone subscribers.  55 percent of Vodafone NZ’s revenue comes from consumers,36 percent from enterprise and the rest from wholesale.

  • Sky TV and Discovery ink exclusive long-term deal

    Sky TV and Discovery ink exclusive long-term deal

    MUMBAI: Sky TV and Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP) have inked a long-term exclusive partnership for Discovery Networks programming in New Zealand, underscoring a commitment to providing viewers with the most comprehensive entertainment offering in the market.

     

    The multi-year agreement includes the addition of two brand new channels for New Zealand – TLC and Discovery Turbo – which will be available to all Sky’s domestic customers over the next few months as part of the basic subscription package.

     

    DNAP’s current New Zealand portfolio includes localised versions of global brands Discovery Channel and Animal Planet and much-loved local lifestyle channels Food TV and Living Channel. The additions of TLC and Discovery Turbo allows for distribution of an even greater variety of premiere programming that will be embraced by Kiwi audiences.

     

    “Our commitment to driving value for subscription television audiences has been seen through strong investment in high quality and engaging programming, dedicated NZ schedules and local productions. The launch of TLC and Discovery Turbo – together with the recent acquisition of Food TV and Living Channel – increases our local offering and further strengthens our partnership with Sky TV,” said Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, ANZ & Pac Islands EVP and general manager Mandy Pattinson.

     

    “We have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with Discovery Networks Asia Pacific and today’s announcement is an exciting one as we further cement our partnership. We are proud to have Discovery Channel as a pillar of our basic offering having broadcast the channel since our UHF days in the 90’s.  Now we are able to share six great Discovery Networks channels with all of our domestic customers, each offering the quality content they’re renowned for,” added Sky CEO John Fellet.

     

    Launching on 1 September as part of Sky’s basic package is TLC, the exclusive home of programming from the Oprah Winfrey Network as well as great female factual entertainment programming.

  • Woosh in internet television deal with Sky TV

    Woosh in internet television deal with Sky TV

    MUMBAI: New Zealand based wireless telecommunications operator Woosh has enterted into a deal with New Zealand’s main pay-television operator Sky Television to deliver channels straight to subscribers online.

    As part of the deal, Woosh has secured rights over 2.3GHz spectrum owned by Sky. The two companies have combined the spectrum rights they own to provide TV, voice and broadband over the airwaves.

    Commenting on the deal, Woosh chairman Rod Inglis says, “This is the next step in our evolving business strategy as Woosh moves to being a fully convergent kiwi telecommunications services company. Wimax will inevitably be part of any full service telecommunications business. Securing Sky as our pay TV content partner is a major boost for Woosh especially as we start to move towards Internet Television or IPTV.”

    Woosh already has spectrum rights and arrangements with other rights holders to give it the capacity to deliver the fast evolving full suite of Wimax services, according to an official release.

    Inglis says “You need at least 50MHz of spectrum to be confident you can match up to the future demands that will emerge with Wimax deployment in New Zealand.”

    Wimax is a broadband wireless standard, often called Wifi on Steroids, initially promoted by Intel and now adopted by many of the worlds’ leading wireless technology vendors.

    Sky Television chief executive John Fellet says, “Sky believes there is an exciting future in delivering content services over Wimax. Woosh has emerged as one the nation’s leaders in broadband wireless and we look forward to working together. We support Woosh’s view that normal spectrum renewal rights be granted to enable rapid deployment of Wimax services.’

    Inglis advises that Woosh investors are committed to a substantial build out using the spectrum.

    Partnerships with third party platform providers such as Woosh form an integral part of Sky’s strategy to deliver to consumers “what they want, when they want it, on any device.

    In the United States, satellite TV operator DirecTV has announced US$2B to support a broadband wireless rollout offering phone, broadband and pay TV services. This follows similar major announcements by SprintNextel and Clearwire in the USA totalling billions of dollars. Intel, Motorola and Craig McCraw, a billionaire wireless pioneer, are funding the Clearwire deployment.

    In Australia, the satellite TV operator Austar has announced a widespread WiMax rollout to complement its pay TV services and a similar offering from Unwired in Australia’s urban areas.

    Under New Zealand’s progressive spectrum management regime Woosh has been able to conclude deals with Telecom and Sky; spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band (a Wimax standard) has been consolidated and reconfigured so that it can provide broadband services using the Wimax technology that is now becoming available.

    Woosh intends continuing with its current UMTS standard TDD network which operates in the 2.0 GHz band. WiMax will be an overlay in the network, as said in the press statement.