Sky TV is planning to collaborate with internet service providers who have been left in the dark in the wake of Tivo’s exclusive partnership with Telecom.

Ahead of the official announcement of Tivo's alliance with Telecom, both Orcon and CallPlus complained that that Hybrid TV (the one-third TVNZ-owned Tivo licensee for Australasia) would not even return their calls.

Vodafone recently struck a billing and marketing partnership with Sky TV, displacing as similar deal with the now Tivo-aligned Telecom.

Sky TV chief executive John Fellet said the introduction of Tivo into the Australian market had not impacted on other paid television providers and he doubted whether it would on the New Zealand market when it is launched this Sunday, November 6.

Yesterday, Hybrid TV chief executive Robbee Minicola refused to comment either way on industry speculation that only 30,000 Tivo boxes had been sold in Australia during the service's first year of operation.

Mr Fellet spoke to Sky TV shareholders and media at the company’s annual general meeting in Auckland yesterday, where he outlined a confident outlook for 2010 despite the recession and slumping advertising revenues.

Sky TV receives 90% of its revenue from subscriptions but even a dip in 10% of the company’s assets has strong affects on the balance sheet, Mr Fellet said.

He said Sky TV had done remarkably well through the recession, which also saw the launch of MySky media devices, providing around the clock high definition (HD) content streamed directly into the homes of about 130,000 New Zealanders.

Mr Fellet put MySky’s success, during a time of economic instability, down to content and people watching more television today than ever before.

“During a recession our lives become less busy, people put off that vacation or keep the car for an extra year, put off home improvements. The dynamic of TV is changing [with HD media devices] now people can programme their favourite channels and save that content to view when convenient.

“The economy is the [currently] biggest challenge and will be next year as well. New Zealand has been hit harder than Australia, but not as hard as the US. We launched MySky during a recession and we launched the company during a recession (1991).

“When we launched we were targeting high income (families) who were generally not affected by the recession. But now we have a good footprint of middle New Zealand. It’s all about content at the moment but we are fighting for people’s disposable time and disposable income.”

Mr Fellet said Sky TV had grown when the dollar was soft and when the dollar was strong, during phases of Labour and National governments.  “There has been an explosive growth with MySky. Never in my 30 year career, in paid TV, have I seen a product grow so much,” Mr Fellet told shareholders yesterday afternoon.

There have been five consecutive quarters of negative growth and a widely fluctuating New Zealand dollar plus the acquisition of Prime that has put pressure on Sky TV, but the company has weathered the storm, he said.