Sky Network Television
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History
Founded by Terry Jarvis, Craig Heatley, Trevor Farmer and Alan Gibbs 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 former Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Jonathan Hunt, according to Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Sky rapidly won long term rights from US sports network ESPN (which became 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 Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Southland and Otago, 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 Granada UKTV, Hallmark Channel, TVSN and Property TV. A SkyMail email service was also featured for a time, but was later pulled due to lack of interest, (including the wireless keyboards they had produced for it).
2006 Sky Digital outage
The direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) service went offline just before 7p.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 manoeuvre 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 there was any connection, as the satellite would only have been in shadow for a few more minutes than usual, if even in the shadow of the Moon at all during the eclipse. Service was resumed at 8 a.m. (9 p.m. London, 4 p.m. New York) on March 31, 2006. SKY credited customers with one day’s 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.”
Prime Television
In November 2005, Sky announced it had purchased the free-to-air channel Prime Television for NZ million. Sky uses 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.
2009-2010 UHF shutdown
Sky is now in the process of turning off their UHF service. This started with Taupo on August 31, 2009, and should be completed by March 1, 2010. They plan to hand their UHF and radio spectrum back to the Government and trade them for digital terrestrial bandwidth.
Products and services
Television
Channels Available
The following lists all current digital channels:
Channel No.
Channel Name
Subscription package
Widescreen
HD
Notes
000
Preview
Basic
Yes
No
Previews Sky Box Office
001
TV One
Basic
Yes
Yes
Free-to-air
002
TV2
Basic
Yes
Yes
Free-to-air
003
TV3
Basic
Yes
Yes
Free-to-air
004
Prime
Basic
Yes
No
Free-to-air
005
the BOX
Basic
Yes
No
006
UKTV
Basic
Yes
No
007
Vibe
Basic
Yes
No
008
Living
Basic
No
No
009
Food Television
Basic
No
No
010
Comedy Central
Basic
Yes
No
011
E!
Basic
Yes
No
012
C4
Basic
Yes
No
Free-to-air
014
MTV
Basic
No
No
016
TVNZ 6
Basic
Yes
No
Free-to-air
017
Fashion TV
Basic
Yes
No
019
Mori Television
Basic
Yes
No
Free-to-air
020
Sky Movies
Sky Movies
Yes
Yes
021
Sky Movies 2
Sky Movies
Yes
No
022
Sky Movies Greats
Sky Movies
Yes
Yes
023
MGM
Sky Movies
Yes
No
024
TCM
Sky Movies
No
No
025
Rialto Channel
Platinum Movies (also Extra Channel)
Yes
No
028
Preview
Basic
Yes
No
Previews Sky Box Office
030
Sky Sport 1
Sky Sport
Yes
Yes