Sky TV shuts down Fatso
DVDs-by-mail is still a profitable business for Netflix. Sky is not so keen.
Sky TV is phasing out its Fatso service, which lets members order DVDs online, then have them delivered by snail mail.
Fatso will be shut down on November 23, with members offered half-price (that is, $10 a month) to Sky's streaming service Neon for three months.
Better broadband and the attendant rise of streaming video is the obvious culprit in Fatso's demise (and the broader disappearance of video rental stores).
But, ironically, streaming king Netflix began in the DVDs-by-mail service, and its equivalent to Fatso remains very profitable in the US – to the degree that most quarters it relies on it to squeak into profit.
Fatso gained a monopoly on the market here after Sky bought rivals DVD Unlimited and Movieshack in 2008 and rolled them into its own service.
Sky TV has never broken out numbers for Fatso but it seems it was never great shakes. Back in 2008, then Fatso manager Rob Berman said his aim was to double subscribers to 20,000 over the next 18 months. At another point, Sky boss John Fellet told NBR Fatso had the same number of customers as "two Blockbuster stores."
Today, Sky communications director Kirsty Way said the number of Fatso subs was "less than 10,000."
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Sky TV shuts down Fatso
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