Sky to be bundled with Spark

AUCKLAND: Sky says it has reached a deal with Spark that will enable Spark to offer the Sky Sport Now streaming service offered as a $49.99 permonth bundle with Spark Sport Now from November 16.

Spark Sport costs $24.99 per month (with some Spark mobile and broadband customers able to claim a $5 rebate), while Sky Sport now costs $49.99 per month (although it can fall to $24.92 per month if a customer pays $299 to commit to a 12month bundle). That means someone who buys both services together will save up to $25 per month.

Spark said the bundle would be available only to any broadband or mobile customer on contract.

It will not be available for those on prepay.

The initial period of the deal is six months.

Neither side would comment on commercial terms.

Noone had been picking that the two competing sports streaming services would be offered in a single bundle.

But it is not the first time Spark and Sky have cooperated.

Spark offered Sky’s earlier sports streaming service,

Fanpass, to its own customers at a cutprice rate under a wholesale deal.

Sky hosted a 2019 Rugby World Cup channel for its commercial customers, providing Spark with an atcost way to provide pubs and clubs with easy access to the tournament.

And after Sky bought entertainment streaming service Lightbox from Spark for $6 million, the telco’s qualifying customers still received free access under a wholesale deal for six months until June this year, when Lightbox was merged into Sky’s Neon. —