It's dropping, but why would people buy at today's price if they agreed with the majority that Sky will be out of business in a few years and the SP will just keep dropping to zero?
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I think people realise it's going to be a slow death and they are still (currently) a very profitable business. They still have a monopoly on sports rights so they have a few years left to reenergise their business model before they start to lose their hold on sporting rights. With strong leadership and a new direction to the digital age the SP would present value, but sadly they are dearly lacking in both departments.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11850847
Clasping for money.
Probably a good idea they save up as much as they can they are going to need it. Come 2020 when the Rugby rights are up - it all looks bad. Firstly the Rugby guys will be in an incredibly strong negotiating position knowing how desperate they will be to keep it. Then all sorts of others will probably take a ping at it to steal the market - or knock sky over - maybe even the likes of their old mates at Voda, but seems likely at least Spark will have a go, which will drive up the prices - when surely the prices SKY can charge the public are already maxed which will kill the profit margins - and then finally going by international trends - they rights are now being split between Satellite and Streaming, meaning they might actually end up paying the same but losing the online rights to someone else like a Spark or something - which will really hurt as they have proven time and time again competition is not something they can deal with. Streaming is getting to be a big deal now, what will be it like 3 years from now - SKY had the chance of a massive headstart in that tech which will inevitably be the standard in the next decades - but they are throwing it away.
At the very least even if they execute flawlessly and lock up the sports into themselves and convince people to keep the archaic decoders in their houses (and when does Sky ever do anything flawlessly) they will simply end up paying a lot more for the same. So yeah, all not looking so good.
The thing with all this is that SKY produces the games via OSB which it purchased several years back (one of the most brilliant moves Fellet has made). OSB has several production trucks costing tens of millions of dollars each. No one else in NZ is equipped to produce the games. Broadcasting them via OTT if you have the feed is the easy bit. It would take a ton of capital to setup a rival production company. Then there's experience, commentators, etc. They are actually in a stronger position than most realise.
In the context of Sky changing the subscription model, that says their costs stay the same but they take an immediate hit on revenue by stopping the daily and weekly subscriptions. This gaff imo to move online subscribers to the set top box subscription model, is a poorly thought out move. Sky need to show its shareholders how they forecast a successful outcome by reducing revenue and sustaining costs.
I feel like Sky should partner with United Airlines and Pepsi somehow..
Aggressively pursuing those who illegally streamed the Parker fight the same week they made it harder for people to view their sport offerings online, not the greatest PR exercise.
Looks like a dying monopoly desperately trying to hold on IMO....Adapt or Die
I suppose the only thing is if a lot of that cost and set-up is geared towards broadcasting via satellite or standard TV -rather than via the interweb. Depends how deep someone like Spark's pockets are. And with staff, commentators etc, if Sky lose the rights, then those people lose their jobs, and the new broadcaster will be hiring.
The cost to create content and broadcast it is already sunk cost, whether to satellite or internet. Sky have simply, and stupidly, changed the subscription model, eliminating short term viewer revenue on some strange monopolistic idea that online sports fans will revert to paying a monthly fee that is more than the set-top-box subscribers, or a yearly fee. Good luck with that.
Fellet even went as far as likening Sky to Netfliks by suggesting a monthly fee model (only) is a legitimate response to market. Idiot has no idea about internet distribution, not a skerrick of credibility. Netfliks is about $13 a month all you can eat. You can watch movies 24x7 and not pay a cent more. Lightbox as well. Sky has lost the plot, they have disenfranchised existing short term Fanpass subscribers and set themselves up for an immediate revenue hiding and massive uncertainty around future online subscription revenues.
Who hires these product marketing numpty's? Hey Sky boss I got a great idea, let's kill off an existing revenue stream by shutting down short term Fanpass subscriptions, and those numb nut subscribers are so addicted to Sky Sports that they'll sign up to a monthly charge greater than ordering a set top box and the truely no hoper addicts will pay us a fortune for an annual subscription. Weeping.
Good grief. Sky really flushed the baby with the bathwater on this one. Watch the revenue closely shareholders, it's going down down down and the expense line isn't changing, not a bit.
Oh, and watch how they manipulate the subscriber statistics, we all know they're in free-fall for the set-top-box subscribers, but see if you can figure out whether they're incorporating the internet subscribers as well, cos those are propping up legacy subscribers (albeit not sustainably) but now those online subscriber numbers just got slashed by killing off the daily and weekly Fanpass.
I'm very interested in this.
To be honest I think they'll get a spike in subscriber's now or at least dulling of the subscriber drop (in their next report). They just did an offer with $150 credit for a 6 month contract. A lot of people will do that for the Lions tour now they can't get fanpass at a decent price. Most of those people will then cancel in 6 months time. Sky is being extremely short sighted in everything they do. Even Neon is an expensive flop.
A Sky TV insider tells NBR its Fanpass service has fewer than 10,000 active users – and indicates it’s well below the company’s goals.
The insider says Sky’s aim is to keep hold the line on traditional subs while growing the online, no-contract services Neon and Fanpass. That hasn’t been happening.
With Sky's first-half 2017 result, total subscriber numbers fell 5.2% to 816,135 and profit fell as additions to Fanpass and Neon failed to offset those who deserted their decoder (the company did not break down numbers for each service).
https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/sky-in...anpass-numbers
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I purchased the day pass 3-4 times in the last year @ $15 a pop just to watch a single Super Rugby match. I thought that $15 was an insane price just to watch one match, but I had no interested in buying a more "economical" weekly or monthly price and then having to watch things that I am not interested in just to get my "money's worth".
I would never purchase a monthly or six-monthly pass, so they have lost my whimsical purchases to the local pub. I would assume that the margin on a day pass would have been huge, so I really don't get this short-sighted decision. Maybe they will bring these options back "due to customer demand" after the Lions tour...