New Zealand’s Sky TV unveils SVoD service in 2014-end

New Zealand’s pay television network, Sky Network Television, will introduce a Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVoD) service by the end of this year. SVoD service is likely to be priced for AUD 10.81 to 20.81 (USD 10 to 20) per month, pricing would vary according to the other VoD services from overseas operators such as Quickflix, Ezyflix and Netflix.

Sky Network TV  is eying to captivate over 10% more customers, initially; it claims to have over 857,111 subscribers at the end of December, 2013, with 51% market penetration. The company is working out how much content to offer and is in talks with suppliers, said John Fellet, CEO of Sky Network TV. “Instead of building linear channels, (the content) all goes into a pool,” added Fellet. “

The Sky model still works but when we talk to non-customers, clearly this has demand which we want to fill,” Fellet stated. “In order to keep growing we think we need to keep reviewing different business models,” he said, adding the company would “not be able to go from 50 per cent to 75 per cent penetration” with the existing pay-TV model.

New Zealand’s regional stations make the digital switch

According to New Zealand’s Broadcasting Minister, Craig Foss, not only will regional television stations not suffer from the switch from analogue to digital, but nine regional stations in the country have already made the transition with very little problems.

The final region in New Zealand, North Island, would be switching to digital on December 1st after which the country will have made the transition entirely. While certain agencies have noted that smaller TV stations may not survive the move, Foss has confirmed that USD 70,000 was provided to local stations to change equipment that support analogue to equipment that will allow for digital broadcasting.

In the meantime, the citizens of the country have been active getting their old television sets recycled as part of an initiative called the TV TakeBack programme. So far in upper North Island alone, a total of 12,757 TVs have been collected and a total of 155,640 TVs have been collected together with the Lower North Island.

65,000 homes possibly face cable TV blackout in New Zealand

Starting from December 1, 2013, North Island, in New Zealand will be the last area in the country to completely adopt digital broadcasts. However according to Going Digital National Manager, Greg Harford, as many as 65,000 television homes in the region might face cable TV blackouts if they do not act immediately.

Greg Harford said that while most have made the switch to digital TV, there is still a massive chunk that has not migrated yet. He said, “Nearly everyone in the upper North Island switchover region is now watching digital television, but there are still more than 65,000 households that need to act or face the prospect of no TV from December 1.

The Going Digital campaign according to Harford has been working closely with other communities in the area and have delivered more than 29,000 free installations as of date to help with the transition. The digital switchover in New Zealand began in September of 2012 and North Island is the only area yet to digitised.