Vodafone set to offer Sky TV's Neon free, but not to those on My Sky deal
Conservative edge to Sky TV/Vodafone promotion, aimed squarely at Spark's big-bang move to offer Lightbox free to all its 600,000 broadband customers.
Vodafone seems to be shaping up to offer Sky TV's Netflix clone, Neon, free for six months to customers on its unlimited data plans.
Neither immediately returned questions about a promo page, now offline, which reportedly carried the offer.
Last week, Spark made its Lightbox internet TV service free to all of its 600,000 broadband customers for 12 months.
In NBR's Friday Jan 23 print edition, First NZ Capital's Arie Dekker mused that Sky TV and its partner Vodafone would likely make a move in response.
It appears the're readyinig to do just that, but on a more modest level than Spark's big-bang play Lightbox play.
Lightbox is available to customers of any ISP for $15. Spark's 600,000 or so broadband customers (who represent around 50% of the market according to Commerce Commission figures) have a year free.
Vodafone holds around 32% of the ISP market, and only a minority of its customers will be be on the more expensive unlimited data plans need to qualify for the free Neon deal.
There also seems to be another restriction..
Vodafone and Sky TV are already partners. Vodafone sells Vodafone TV, a box that's essentially a re-branded MySky decoder, with a few extras thrown in.
And Vodafone customers on certain plans can get a free upgrade to My Sky HDI.
But a line on a Vodafone web page this morning (which appears to have escaped this morning's mop-up), reads, "Free MY SKY HDi not included on Vodafone unlimited broadband data and Home Phone plans with NEON."
It looks like Sky TV is keen to protect its traditional My Sky service, at least to a degree, against the cheaper Neon.
Neon, originally due to launch by the end of 2014, is expected to go live later this month.
Chris Keall
Tue, 27 Jan 2015
Tue, 27 Jan 2015
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Vodafone set to offer Sky TV's Neon free, but not to those on My Sky deal
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