Sky partnership delivering for viewers, says CEO

Rival Spark may be aggressively chasing new content opportunities, but Vodafone’s Russell Stanners says he is happy to live with whatever wins partner Sky TV can manage.

The Commerce Commission last year declined a merger between Vodafone and Sky TV, mainly on the grounds that Sky held a nearmonopoly on the country’s sports rights.

Since then, Spark and partner TVNZ have managed to wrest the rights for the Rugby World Cup away from Sky and are reportedly about to sign a deal for the English Premier League football rights, proving any monopoly might not be as strong as previously thought.

While Spark focuses on expanding its content offering, Stanners says Vodafone is still in the lead.

“Everything TVNZ and Spark are doing is to compete with Vodafone and Sky,” he says. “We were first with Vodafone TV and today we have more paying subscribers of content over telco networks than anyone else in New Zealand by a long way. We’re Sky’s largest partner and we’re doing very well.”

Vodafone has more than 115,000 pay TV customers and this month launched its entry TV package with free channels and the ability to integrate add-ons like Netflix and Neon.

“We have a great partnership with Sky and their business is content, so we will live with what they can win,” Stanners says — adding that if Sky lost major pieces of content, Vodafone would consider wholesaling it from whoever had the rights.

“My own view is that we try to be good at what we’re good at and not pretend to be good at everyone else’s business,” he says. “We’re not making that investment to become a content company in terms of bidding for things.”

With the rugby rights up for renewal and several players reportedly in the bidding mix, all eyes will be on who can win that fight.