Vodafone, Sky TV poised to expand partnership

Vodafone has alerted media that it plans to make an announcement around its Sky TV partnership next Tuesday.

Invites to the events, from Vodafone, came with a remote control for a Sky TV MySkyHDi decoder - a not-so-subtle hint that the pair are about to team for on-demand content delivered via broadband.

Sky TV has new competition to deal with, and Vodafone may be able to help out.

Read also:
First taste of turbocharged Vodafone 3G
Telecom promises “supercharged” 3G nationwide by month’s end
Vodafone lost 27,000 customers in September quarter

The one-third TVNZ-owned TiVo launched last Friday with an exclusive retail arrangement with Telecom. Additionally, only Telecom Broadband customers can access on-demand movies and TV shows through TiVo (which are not counted toward a monthly data cap) although customers on any ISP can access TiVo’s Freeview HD broadcast feed (read NBR's TiVo Q&A here).

Telecom (NZX: TEL) and Sky TV have a twin billing arrangement, which is now being wound down in favour of a single-bill deal for Sky TV and Vodafone customers.

And earlier this year, Sky TV suspended its on-demand, broadband delivered content, with chief executive John Fellet blaming a dearth of uncapped internet planned.

But on October 30, Mr Fellet revealed to NBR that he was in discussions with several ISPs about a reanimated IPTV service. The broadcasters MySkyHDi settop box is IPTV-capable, and Mr Fellet has been diligently buying up internet broadcast rights to various programmes.

NBR is guessing that, come Tuesday, Vodafone will become Sky TV’s first partner for a new, on-demand content service.

Almost nothing
At its results briefing on Friday, Telecom Retail chief executive Alan Gourdie would not reveal terms of his company’s deal with TiVo licensee Hybrid TV, but did say that it would cost “almost nothing” to deliver TiVo’s on-demand movies and TV via DSL as all content will be cached locally.

Another benefit: Mr Gourdie said every extended service could potentially reduce Telecom Broadband's churn by 50%.

Mr Fellet indicated to NBR that he was open to similar ISP partnerships, but that none would be exclusive. (Despite its exclusive relationship with Telecom in NZ, TiVo - which launched with a single ISP partner in Australia, now has five).

“We work with anybody,” said Mr Fellet.

Fellet explains kneecaping
The Sky TV (NXZ: SKT) chief executive maintains his company is withholding Prime TV's electronic programming guide listings from TiVo not out of spite, but because TiVo set-top boxes are not yet covered by Nielsen.

TiVo owners can still view Prime (and fellow listings hold-out Maori TV) but only record it using a manual date and time process rather than TiVo's famously user-frienldly interface.

Mr Fellet said he anticipated Nielsen would add TiVo boxes to its survey in six to eight months. Nielsen declined to comment.