Sky, TVNZ team up for Olympics
Sky Television has selected TVNZ as its free-to-air partner for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in a surprise move Sky boss Martin Stewart hopes will be the start of a ‘‘broad partnership’’.
Sky usually uses its own TV channel, Prime, to show sports events that it needs or wants to offer free-to-air. But it said TVNZ 1 would have 12 hours of free-to-air coverage throughout each afternoon and evening of the
Olympics, July 24-August 9, with a one-hour break for 1 News at 6pm and Seven Sharp.
It is understood TVNZ will pay Sky a confidential fee for the coverage but that Sky has also been swayed by the extra viewership and awareness of the Olympics it believes the agreement with TVNZ will provide.
Stewart said Sky had a strong record of delivering free-to-air sport via Prime and would continue to offer a range of other sport and entertainment experiences free on Prime.
But he said he was pleased to bring TVNZ on board as its freeto-air partner for the Tokyo Olympics and did not rule out future collaborations over the
2024 Olympics in Paris and the
2022 and 2026 Commonwealth Games, to which Sky also has the rights. ‘‘This partnership with TVNZ will enable us to draw on the promotional power of our collective platforms to encourage viewership of Tokyo 2020 by the widest range of New Zealanders.’’
Stewart said he met TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick about a month after he joined Sky in February and they shared many similar views on the media landscape and ‘‘the challenges we individually and collectively face’’. ‘‘We certainly had a desire at that point to find something that we could do to work together, and then this opportunity came along to establish what we hope will be a longer-term and more broadly based partnership between our two companies.
‘‘We both come with an open mind and a willingness to see if there is a way we can achieve outcomes that suit both of our companies and helps benefit consumers in New Zealand.’’
Japanese satellite company ALE has meanwhile confirmed it hopes to put on an artificial ‘‘shooting star’’ show above Tokyo during the Olympics opening ceremony.
The ALE-2 satellite from which artificial shooting stars would be dropped towards the atmosphere is on board a Rocket Lab Electron rocket to be launched from Ma¯ hia Peninsula near Gisborne this evening.
It is understood TVNZ will pay Sky a confidential fee.