Another contender eyes TV’s iron throne

The arrival of Australian TV operator Fetch is being described as a big threat to Sky TV.

Fetch is an internet TV provider rather than a satellite service, as Sky is. It is reportedly ‘‘aggressively’’ looking at new market opportunities this year, including in New Zealand.

‘‘Fetch has strong growth trajectory in Australia and we are now looking to replicate our success overseas. New Zealand is one of several markets we are currently considering,’’ said chief executive Scott Lorson.

It uses a household’s internet connection to provide streamed content via a set-top box set-up.

Users can add premium channels or purchase one-off access to series such as Game of

Thrones.

The service has streaming rights in Australia to channels not yet available in New Zealand, such as SyFy and BBC first. It has 7000 movies available on-demand. Users can rent or buy new releases and have access to 30 free preselected movies each month.

In Australia, the service offers channel packs for A$6 a month ($6.45). It has 650,000 subscribers and is growing at a rate of 20,000 per month.

Sky currently has 779,000 New Zealand subscribers but that number is dropping.

Commentator Peter Griffin said the advantage to customers of using Fetch would be that it operated over the internet, without the need for a satellite dish. He said Fetch also operated a clever software and box system, with much of the same functionality as My Sky.

‘‘But can they get the rights to enough content for the New Zealand market? Sky has a lot of it locked up. But it is a big threat to Sky and the time is right given tens of thousands are giving up Sky every year.’’

Sky last month introduced pricing changes to help stop its customer losses. More than 30,000 cancelled their subscriptions in the year to June last year.

It has divided its Sky Basic service into two, creating a new entrylevel price of $24.91 a month.

Customers who want to carry on with the same access to all the Basic channels will still pay the same amount each month. But the move makes it cheaper to access Sky sport content: Customers can now get Sky Sports for $54.81 a month, instead of the current minimum of $79.81.

‘‘Can they get the rights to enough content for the New Zealand market? Sky has a lot of it locked up.’’ Tech commentator Peter Griffin

Fetch users can add premium channels or purchase oneoff access to series such as Game of Thrones (pictured). The service also has streaming rights in Australia to channels not yet available in New Zealand, such as SyFy and BBC first.