Spark/Netflix double act mooted

Spark isn’t ruling out getting into bed with Netflix, as Sky Television talks up a deeper partnership with Vodafone outside a merger.

Spark spokesman Andrew Pirie said it was committed to its own internet television service Lightbox, which it launched in 2014.

But he would not ‘‘confirm or deny’’ speculation that a partnership with Netflix was being negotiated, saying only that the media market was evolving.

‘‘We are not going to comment at the moment about what we may or may not do with Netflix or any other brand – except to say the media market is evolving and we want to make sure that we are at the forefront of what our customers are looking to watch and be entertained by,’’ he said.

Netflix spokesman Luke McClelland said the company didn’t comment on speculation.

Forsyth Barr analyst Blair Galpin said he would not be surprised by a partnership between the firms.

‘‘Our view all along has been it made more sense for Spark to do a deal with Netflix than to launch Lightbox.’’

Britain’s Vodafone and Netflix have a global partnership, and Vodafone NZ currently offers six-months free access to Netflix to post-paid mobile customers on two-year contracts.

‘‘The question is – if there is a tie-up with Spark – would it be ‘exclusive’ and what the nature of it would be,’’ Galpin said.

Spark has discussed opening up Lightbox by turning it into a platform that could sell programmes owned by other television companies alongside its own content.

However, an industry source said it would not be practical to combine the two services into a single offering. ‘‘For a start, you would have to agree which would be the lesser brand.’’

A partnership between the country’s largest phone company and the world’s largest internet television firm might appear ironic, coming on the heels of the Commerce Commission’s decision not to clear Sky TV’s planned merger with Vodafone.

However, commission chairman Mark Berry said that its concern with the merger was Sky Sports, and it saw the market for all other programming as ‘‘highly competitive’’.

Vodafone spokeswoman Andrea Brady would not comment on a suggestion from Sky TV chief executive John Fellet that the two companies could deepen their existing partnership, outside a merger.

Fellet has suggested Sky TV could still source a new generation of set-top boxes from Vodafone in Europe.