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Sky Network Television

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$ 30 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

031

Sky Sport 2

Sky Sport

Yes

Yes

032

Sky Sport 3

Sky Sport

Yes

No

131

Sky Sport 4

Sky Sport

Yes

No

132

Sky Sport 5

Sky Sport

Yes

No

133

Sky Sport 6

Sky Sport

Yes

No

134

Sky Sport 7

Sky Sport

Yes

No

033

Sky Sport Highlights

Sky Sport

Yes

No

034

ESPN

Basic

No

No

035

TAB TV

Basic

Yes

No

036

Trackside

Basic

Yes

No

Free-to-air

037

The Rugby Channel

Platinum Sport

Yes

No

040

Disney Channel

Basic

Yes

No

041

Nickelodeon

Basic

No

No

042

Cartoon Network

Basic

Yes

No

045

Playhouse Disney

Basic

Yes

No

050

Playin’ TV

Extra Channel

No

No

Interactive games channel

051

MindGames

Extra Channel

No

No

Interactive quiz channel

059

Te Reo

Basic

Yes

No

Free-to-air

062

Juice TV

Basic

Yes

No

063

63 – Our Music TV

Basic

Yes

No

070

Discovery Channel

Basic

No

No

071

ci

Basic

Yes

No

072

National Geographic

Basic

Yes

No

073

History

Basic

No

No

074

Documentary Channel

Basic

Yes

No

075

Animal Planet

Basic

No

No

077

Travel Channel

Basic

Yes

No

079

The Arts Channel

Extra Channel

No

No

089

Triangle STRATOS

Basic

No

No

Free-to-air

090

Sky News

Basic

Yes

No

091

CNN

Basic

No

No

092

Fox News

Basic

Yes

No

093

BBC World News

Basic

Yes

No

094

Parliament TV

Basic

Yes

No

Free-to-air

095

CNBC

Basic

No

No

World business channel

097

TVNZ 7

Basic

Yes

No

Free-to-air

098

Weather Channel

Basic

No

No

Interactive weather service.

099

Country 99 TV

Extra Channel

Yes

No

110

CUE

Basic

Yes

No

Free-to-air

111

Shine TV

Basic

No

No

200

Sky Box Office Events

Basic

Yes

No

A pay-per-view channel showing events such as combat sports and concerts

201-216

Sky Box Office Movies

Basic

Yes

No

A group of pay-per-view movie channels

217

Playboy TV

Basic

No

No

Pay-per-view

218

Adult Channel

Basic

No

No

Pay-per-view

219

Spice Xcess

Basic

No

No

Pay-per-view

300-309

World TV

World TV

No

No

A group of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese channels

310

CCTV-9

Basic

No

No

311

Real Good Life

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

312

New Supremo

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

315

STAR Plus Hindi

Extra Channel

No

No

319

Preview

Basic

Yes

No

Previews Sky Box Office

400-413

Sky Digital Music

Sky Digital Music

N/A

N/A

A group of digital radio channels

500

Kiwi FM

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

501

Radio New Zealand National

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

502

Radio New Zealand Concert

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

505

Tahu FM

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

506

Calvary Chapel Radio

Basic

N/A

N/A

Digital radio channel

Future Channels:

Travel Channel – May 1, 2010

Interactive Services:

Skybet – interactive sports betting service.

Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) – Television listing information

Playin TV Games – video games.

MindGames – challenging video games.

Weather Channel – interactive weather maps and information.

Digital video recorders

My Sky

In December 2005, Sky released its own Digital Video Recorder (DVR), 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. However the PVR box remains the property of SKY Television.

One of the advertised features of My Sky is the ability of the system to record series of programs using the “Series Link” feature. But this has proven to be somewhat unreliable in that on occasions, intended future recordings are not made. This has occurred since the inception of the service. Sky TV say they are working to determine the cause of the random failures, and to rectify it. Soft rebooting the decoder appears to temporarily overcome the problem.

There was software in My Sky that after an hour of no signal from Sky then the decoder locks playback of pre-recorded programmes. This was discovered after the Optus B1 satellite was unable to broadcast Sky to over 600,000 subscribers.

This generation of box was replaced by My Sky HDi when it launched on 1 July 2008.

My Sky HDi

The My Sky HDi decoder and remote control

On 1 July 2008, a new service called My Sky HDi was launched, and is the successor to the My Sky service released in 2006. The HD channels available are Sky Movies, Sky Movies Greats, Sky Sport 1, Sky Sport 2, as well as free-to-air channels TV ONE, TV2, and TV3.

The new boxes allow connection of to up to four satellites which can work with its four TV tuner cards in any combination. Two channels can be recorded at once, while another can be watched live and the fourth is for a non-real time pay per view service. The device has a 320GB HDD however only 160GB is available for recording, the remaining is reserved for on-demand downloads. The quality of My Sky HDi is 576i via component and 720/1080i via HDMI.

As of June 30, 2009, there are 84,002 My Sky HDi subscribers.

Sky On Demand

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 My Sky customers. This service commenced in 2007 and offers 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. SKY intends to add a remote programming feature to My Sky allowing customers to program their PVR’s using the Internet or mobile phones.

Copy Protection

In May 2009 Sky introduced copy protection on My Sky and My Sky HDi decoders limiting the ability to copy material from My Sky/My Sky HDi to DVD/HDD recorders and to PCs. Sky Movies, Sky Movies 2, Sky Movies Greats, MGM & TCM have a copy-once encoding meaning movies can be copied however any further copying is prevented. Sky Box Office channels, including Adult channels are copy protected so DVD/HDD recorders & PCs will not record from these channels. Other channels are not copy protected. Copy protection technology is not built into other decoders.

Remote Record

In August 2009 a new online service was launched where customers can log on and set their My Sky or My Sky HDi’s to record programmes.

The instruction to record a programme is sent to the set-top boxes via satellite.

Mobile

Sky Mobile TV

In December, 2006, Sky announced that it will be launching a new mobile television service to Vodafone New Zealand’s 3G customers. The channels include:

Adult swim

Cartoon Network

Comedy Central

Discovery Channel

MTV

E!

Trackside

Playhouse Disney

Disney Channel

WWE

Nickelodeon

Sky News

Sky Sport Live

Sky Sport News

Publishing

Skywatch

Sky also provides a Skywatch monthly magazine to all its customers. The latest readership survey shows that Skywatch has a readership of 965,000 which makes it the largest magazine read in New Zealand, and the largest monthly magazine. The magazine provides monthly listings for Sky channels, as well as highlights and features.

Sky Sport The Magazine

In January 2007, Sky launched Sky Sport The Magazine, as the published extension of the Sky Sport television package. The magazine features articles by local and international sports writers, as well as sports photography.

Web

Fatso

Main article: Fatso (online DVD rental service)

Sky also owns an Online DVD rental service – Fatso.

Technical

Sky Digital subscribers get a standard 60-centimetre satellite dish installed on their home along 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. Initially, Sky used vertically polarised transponders on Optus D1 (as it had on Optus B1). However, on 31 July 2007 it moved its programming to horizontally polarised transponders with New Zealand-specific beams to be consistent with Freeview and to gain access to more transmission capacity. Sky have also purchased some of the capacity of Optus D3, which was launched mid August 2009, this gives Sky the ability to add more channels and upgrade existing channels to HD in the future.

A set-top box (STB) is 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 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 70 channels of programming.

See also

Optus Satellite Failures

References

^ New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

^ CFM

^ Commerce Commission Website – Sky cleared to acquire Prime Television

^ Sky TV ready to flick its UHF switch

^ Pullar-Stecker, Tom (2009-08-10). “Sky TV to offer Remote Record”. The Dominon Post. http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/2734003/Sky-TV-to-offer-Remote-Record. Retrieved August 11, 2009. “Sky Television’s 70,000 MySky subscribers will be able to log on to the internet to programme their set-top boxes to record programmes from Friday next week.” 

External links

Official site.

New Zealand Stock Exchange Listing.

 

Links to related articles

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Channels on Sky Network Television

Entertainment

TV ONE  TV2  TV3  Prime  the BOX  UKTV  Vibe  Comedy Central  E!  C4  Fashion TV  MTV  TVNZ 6  Mori Television  Te Reo  Triangle STRATOS  CUE

Movies

Sky Movies  Sky Movies 2  Sky Movies Greats  MGM  TCM  Rialto Channel  Sky Box Office Movies

Sports

Sky Sport 1  Sky Sport 2  Sky Sport 3  Sky Sport Highlights  ESPN  Trackside  The Rugby Channel  Sky Box Office Events

News & Documentaries

Discovery Channel  ci  National Geographic  History  Documentary Channel  Animal Planet  Sky News New Zealand  CNN International  Fox News Channel  BBC World News  Parliament TV  CNBC  TVNZ 7  CCTV-9

Kids & Family

Disney Channel  Nickelodeon  Cartoon Network  Playhouse Disney Channel

Lifestyle & Leisure

Living  Food Television  The Arts Channel

Interactive

Playin’ TV  MindGames  Weather Channel

Music

Juice TV  63 – Our Music TV  SKY Digital Music  Kiwi  Radio New Zealand National  Radio New Zealand Concert  Tahu FM  Calvary Chapel Radio

Special Interest

Triangle Stratos  Country 99 TV  Shine TV  Playboy TV  Adult Channel  Spice Xcess  World TV  STAR Plus Hindi

HD Channels

TV ONE HD  TV2 HD  TV3 HD  Sky Movies HD  Sky Movies Greats HD  Sky Sport 1 HD  Sky Sport 2 HD

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News Corporation

Corporate directors

Rupert Murdoch  Jos Mara Aznar  Natalie Bancroft  Chase Carey  David DeVoe  Arthur Siskind  Rod Eddington  Andrew Knight  James Murdoch  Lachlan Murdoch  Rod Paige  Thomas Perkins  Viet Dinh  John L. Thornton

Dow Jones newspapers,

magazines and websites

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Other newspapers

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US broadcast TV

Fox Broadcasting Company  Fox Television Stations  MyNetworkTV

US cable TV

Big Ten Network (49%)  Fox Business Network  Fox College Sports  Fox Movie Channel  Fox News Channel  Fox Reality Channel  Fox Soccer Channel  Fox Sports en Espaol  FSN  Fuel TV  FX  National Geographic Channel (50%)  Speed Channel  SportSouth

Fox O&Os;

KDFW  KMSP  KRIV  KSAZ  KTBC  KTTV  WAGA  WFLD  WFXT  WHBQ  WJBK  WNYW  WOFL  WOGX1  WTTG  WTVT  WTXF

MyNetworkTV O&Os;

KCOP  KDFI  KTXH  KUTP  WDCA  WFTC  WPWR  WRBW  WUTB  WWOR

Non-US and satellite TV

AMP Radio Networks  B1 TV (12.5%)  BSkyB (39.1%)  Fox Turkey  bTV  Fox televizija (49.0%)  Foxtel (25%)  Imedi Media Holding  Phoenix Television (17.6%)  Sky Deutschland (39.96%)  SKY Italia  Sky Network Television (44%)  STAR TV  Premier Media Group (50%)

Fox

International Channels

Fox   Fox Asia   Fox Life  Fox HD  Fox Life HD  Fox Crime  FX  Fox History & Entertainment  Fox Next  Fuel TV  Fox Sports  Speed  Fox Retro  Cult  Next:HD  BabyTV  National Geographic Channel  National Geographic Channel HD  National Geographic Wild  National Geographic Adventure  Nat Geo Music  TVN

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US: Amistad  Avon  Caedmon  Ecco  Eos  Greenwillow  Harper  Harper Perennial  HarperOne  Harper Studio  Joanna Cotler  Katherine Tegan  Laura Gerringer  Morrow  Rayo  Zondervan  UK: Collins  Fourth Estate  The Friday Project  Blue Door  Thorsons/Element  Voyager  Australia: Angus & Robertson

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1WOGX is a partial satellite of WOFL. 2Joint Venture with NBC Universal and The Walt Disney Company.

Annual revenue: $ 30.4 billion USD (17% FY 2009)  Employees: 64,000  Stock symbol: NYSE: NWS, NYSE: NWSa, ASX: , LSE: NCRA

See List of assets owned by News Corporation.

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NZX 50 companies of New Zealand

Auckland International Airport Limited  Air New Zealand Limited  AMP Limited  ANZ Group  APN News & Media Limited  AMP Limited NZ Office Trust  Cavalier Corporation Limited  Contact Energy Limited  Ebos Group Limited  Fletcher Building Limited  Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited  Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited  Freightways Limited  Goodman Fielder Limited  Goodman Property Trust  Guinness Peat Group Plc  Hallenstein Glasson Holdings Limited  Infratil Limited  ING Medical Properties Trust  ING Property Trust  Kiwi Income Property Trust  Mainfreight Limited  Michael Hill International Limited  Methven Limited  Nuplex Industries Limited  New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited  The New Zealand Refining Company Limited  NZ Farming Systems Uruguay Limited  NZX Limited  Property For Industry Limited  PGG Wrightson Limited  Port of Tauranga Limited   Pumpkin Patch Limited  Pike River Coal Limited  Rakon Limited  Ryman Healthcare Limited  Sanford Limited  Sky City Entertainment Group Limited  Skellerup Holdings Limited  Sky Network Television Limited  Steel & Tube Holdings Limited  Telecom New Zealand  Tourism Holdings Limited  Telstra Corporation Limited  TrustPower Limited  Tower Limited  Vector Limited  Westpac Banking Corporation  The Warehouse Group Limited

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Cable, satellite, and other speciality television providers in Africa, Asia and Oceania

Cable

Austar  Cablelink  Cable TV Hong Kong  First Media  Foxtel  Global Destiny  GUdTV (Guam)  IndosatM2  MCV Broadband  Neighbourhood Cable  Optus  SkyCable  StarHub TV  TelkomVision  Saturn  TransACT

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IPTV

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Defunct cable

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Astro Nusantara

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


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