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.

Sky TV, like many TV networks around the world, is cashing in on people sitting around doing nothing.

The “staycation,” soon to enter the list of super-annoying corporate buzz-words, is the idea that people scale back their spending, cancelling holidays, car, boat and house purchases in favour of TVs and Playstations to spend their vacation at home.

Freeview says it finished 2008 with 52,522 of its HD receivers in Kiwi living rooms, a nose ahead of Sky Television’s installed base of MySky HDi boxes – which chief executive John Fellet says are a money loser.

At the end of 2008, a total of 198,938 Freeview receivers had been sold, meaning the consortium is now broadcasting to about 12.6% of New Zealand homes.

But although Sky TV still has nearly four times the market penetration overall, Freeview has moved ahead in the high definition race.