SKY Television is New Zealand’s pre-eminent pay television operator, offering a wide range of sports, movies, music, on-demand and general content across more than 100 channels. SKY’s channel line-up includes 7 sports channels, 6 movie channels, 8 general entertainment channels, 5 documentary channels, 5 news channels, 4 children’s channels, as well as other niche and special interest channels. (As of 30 June 2009, SKY had 778,902 subscribers).
SKY launched as a three-channel UHF service in 1990, with two further channels added four years later. SKY’s UHF signal reaches more than 83% of the country’s 1.5 million households. In December 1998 SKY launched a digital satellite service, extending its reach to the whole country. More than 47% of New Zealand homes subscribe to SKY through its digital satellite and UHF networks.
SKY also offers pay-per-view movies, live events and interactive services including Skybet, the Weather Channel, and games channels Mind Games and Playin TV.
With the establishment of a new on line DVD rental service and in December 2005, the launch of MY SKY, a new decoder incorporating a personal video recorder, SKY provides New Zealand viewers with even more entertainment options.
In July 2008 SKY launched MYSKYHDi, a new High Definition decoder and PVR with Dolby Digital surround sound, IPTV capability and increased storage. SKY currently offers four MPEG-4 High Definition television channels (SKY Sport 1 and 2, SKY Movies and SKY Movies Greats) and TV3 HD to subscribers.
On 8 February 2006, SKY completed the purchase of the New Zealand television business of PRIME Television Ltd. The acquisition of a free-to-air channel now gives SKY the opportunity to showcase its channels and programmes whilst ensuring that New Zealand consumers can view delayed free-to-air sports programmes such as rugby, rugby league and cricket in primetime.