The company was founded by
Craig Heatley,
Terry Jarvis,
Trevor Farmer and
Alan Gibbs in May 1987 as Sky Media Limited. It was later incorporated on 26 November, five weeks after the stock market crash. It was formed to investigate beaming sports programming into nightclubs and pubs using high performance 4-metre (13') satellite dishes by Jarvis and an
engineering associate Brian Green, but was redirected into pay television following successful bidding in early 1990 for four groups of
UHF frequencies in the
Auckland,
Hamilton and
Tauranga regions. Initially operating only in the Auckland region, Sky contracted Broadcast Communications (now
Kordia) to provide the broadcast service and transmission from its Panorama Road studios, formerly owned by defunct broadcaster
Northern Television. The first Sky subscriber was former
Speaker of the House of Representatives Jonathan Hunt, according to
Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand. The concept of a pay television service was new to New Zealand and Sky had early problems. These included viewer acceptance of subscriber television. It faced difficulty in educating retailers and customers on the use of the original decoders. However, this problem was eased with the introduction of easier-to-use decoders that allowed greater viewer flexibility. On 10 December 1997, the company was listed on
NZX.
UHF service Sky originally launched on 8 May 1990 as an analogue UHF service. Later, funding allowed Sky to extend its coverage throughout most of New Zealand: In 1991, the company expanded to
Rotorua,
Wellington and
Christchurch. Then in 1994, the company expanded to
Hawke's Bay,
Manawatu,
Southland and
Otago, followed by the
Wairarapa,
Taupō, and
Wanganui regions in 1995. Its final UHF expansion, in 1996, was to
Taranaki,
Whangārei, and eastern
Bay of Plenty Region. An agreement with
The Warehouse saw the retailer selling UHF subscriptions in 67 of its 78 outlets from October 2002. These were all located within Sky's UHF service zones. Following the launch of the digital satellite service in 1998 (see below), Sky began reducing services on the UHF platform. NICAM stereo was eventually removed from Sky Movies in 2001 after moving its transmitter network from Telecom NZ to BCL (currently Kordia) while the CNN channel was discontinued in 2004 with the UHF frequencies issued to
Māori Television. It was also relatively easy to hack, when, in 2002, descriptions of a computer program descrambling the signals was mentioned on Jeremy Bertenshaw's website circulated beyond his friend circle. Sky announced in July 2009 that it would no longer accept new UHF subscriptions and that the equipment to replace the UHF transmitters had become impossible to find due to lack of production, as some of its transmitters began to collapse. There were reportedly 25,000 subscribers to the UHF service in 2009, a far cry from the 300,000 of 1995. Sky switched off its analogue UHF TV service on 11 March 2010 at midnight. Sky used a portion of the freed up UHF and radio spectrum to launch its joint venture,
Igloo, in December 2012. The remaining unused spectrum was relinquished back to the Government and will be recycled to support new broadcasting ventures.
Satellite service Plans for a satellite service emerged in November 1996, set to launch in April or May 1997. The five channels already on UHF (Orange, Sky Movies, Sky Sport, Discovery Channel, CNN) were being joined by five more: ESPN 2, a new version of Orange carrying British programmes and dramas, Hallmark Channel, and two further channels which were still being considered. In April 1997, Sky introduced a nationwide analogue
direct broadcasting via satellite (DBS) service over the
Optus B1 satellite. This allowed it to offer more channels and interactive options, as well as nationwide coverage. It upgraded it to a digital service in December 1998. While some channels on the UHF platform were shared with other channels, Sky Digital screened the same channels 24 hours a day. Orange (later known as Sky 1 and
The Box) extended to screening 24 hours a day on Sky Digital but was only available to Sky UHF subscribers between 4 pm and 6 am.
Discovery Channel was available to Sky Digital subscribers 24 hours a day but UHF subscribers could only receive the channel outside of
Trackside's broadcast hours. Digital versions of free-to-air channels have always been available on Sky Digital meaning that some subscribers did not need to purchase any equipment to receive digital TV when New Zealand switched off its analogue service. While most free-to-air channels have been available on Sky Digital, TVNZ channels
TVNZ 1 and
TVNZ 2 did not become available until the end of 2001, when the two parties entered an agreement to carry the channels in November of that year. This caused the channel line-up to be rearranged; in addition,
BBC World was added, in a non-exclusive deal, which did not affect overnight carriage of the channel on TV One. A SkyMail
email service was featured for a time starting November 2002, but was later pulled due to lack of interest (including the wireless keyboards they had produced for it). The unreliability of the ageing Optus B1 satellite was highlighted when the DBS service went offline just before 7 p.m.
NZST (8 a.m. London, 3 a.m. New York) on 30 March 2006. The interruption affected service to over 550,000 customers and caused many decoders to advise customers of "
rain fade." Due to excessive volume of calls to the Sky toll-free help-desk, Sky posted update messages on their website advising customers that they were working with Optus to restore service by midnight. Sky credited customers with one day's subscription fees as compensation for the downtime at a cost to the company of
NZ$1.5 million. Sky switched its DBS service to the
Optus D1 satellite, announced in July, on 15 November 2006. The satellite enabled the addition of fifteen new channels, including new services for young audiences. It later expanded its transponder capacity on this satellite to allow for extra channels and HD broadcasts.
My Sky launch On 5 December 2005, Sky released its own
digital video recorder (DVR), which was an upgraded set top box similar to
Foxtel IQ in Australia or
TiVo in the United States, called My Sky. The PVR's hard disc had a storage of 160 GB (60 hours). About 10,000 units were sent in its first year, which was half of what was planned due to logistical issues. Early boxes had flaws in the EPG, which did not work in real time, causing disruption to recordings, while the default channel when switched on was Sky's preview channel, instead of the last channel the viewer watched. This generation of boxes was replaced by My Sky HDi when it launched on 1 July 2008. These boxes allow connection of up to four satellites which can work with its four TV tuner cards in any combination. The device has a 320GB HDD. The quality of My Sky HDi is 576i via component and 720/1080i via HDMI. On 1 July 2011, a version of the same decoder with a 1TB hard drive was launched as My Sky+. Much like what happened with the previous My Sky model, the launch was plagued by similar problems, with some subscribers not receiving their units until after 9 September 2011, ten days after the start of the
2011 Rugby World Cup.
Purchase of Prime Television In November 2005, Sky announced it had purchased the free-to-air channel
Prime TV for
NZ$30 million. Sky uses Prime TV to promote its pay content and to show delayed sports coverage.
New Zealand's Commerce Commission issued clearance for the purchase on 8 February 2006. Prime was renamed
Sky Open in 2023.
Purchase of Onsite Broadcasting In July 2010, Sky purchased Onsite Broadcasting, later Outside Broadcasting (OSB), from Australia's Prime Media Group. The sale price was $35 million but once liabilities were taken into account the net amount was $13.5 million. Since 2001, OSB provided outside broadcast facilities for Sky's sporting coverage and was also contracted out by Sky to other broadcasters like TVNZ, TV3, Warner Bros., Fox Sports, Channel 9, Ten Network, Channel 7 and BBC among others. It effectively replaced Moving Pictures, which was TVNZ's outside broadcast division, that had dominated the market. Moving Picture's assets were eventually sold when Sky's sports rights increased in the mid-2000s and OSB took hold. OSB owned the following vehicles (until 2020's sale), based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch; • HD1 and HD3: 14.3m semi-trailer production unit with expanding side, capable of holding 20+ cameras. They are supporter by tender vehicles. HD1 is based in Christchurch. • HD2: 14.3m semi-trailer production unit with the capability of holding up to 16+ cameras. It is supported by a tender vehicle with extra production facilities. This unit is based in Wellington. • HD4: 15m semi-trailer production unit with the capability of using 16+ cameras. It too is supported by a tender vehicle with additional production space. • HD5: 12.5m rigid truck and can input 8+ cameras supported by a similar sized tender vehicle with additional production room. • HD6: Small van which is capable of 6+ cameras. It is supported by a similar sized van for storage and linking • AUX1: Was an original outside broadcast production unit (OSB1), however it has been converted into a specialised production trailer (not a stand-alone OB trailer) for specialty cameras, additional graphics and houses any overflow production areas for larger broadcasts • OSB2: An original standard definition 13.5m semi-trailer production unit capable of 14+ cameras. This is supported by a tender truck with additional production space. • HD/SD Fly Away kits: Suitable for broadcasts overseas On 12 August 2020, Sky announced it had sold Outside Broadcasting to NEP New Zealand, part of American production company
NEP Group. As part of the transaction, NEP will be Sky's outsourced technical production partner in New Zealand until at least 2030. The sale was cleared by the
Commerce Commission on 5 February 2021.
News Corp sale In February 2013,
News Corp announced it would be selling the 44 percent stake in Sky TV that it acquired via a merger with
Independent Newspapers Ltd in 2005.
Replacement of legacy hardware From November 2015, Sky started replacing the legacy standard digital decoders and original 2005 My Sky decoders with a new digital decoder, manufactured by Kaon. The Kaon Sky box includes built-in Wi-Fi. The Kaon box has an ability to block recording features and storage capacity. The decoder upgrade allowed Sky to cease broadcasting scrambled channels using
H.262 video compression in favour of
H.264. The software upgrade to My Sky boxes contained many bugs and caused thousands of customers to become disgruntled. The major issue was with the screen font which Sky later addressed in a future upgrade.
Proposed merger with Vodafone New Zealand In June 2016, Sky TV and
Vodafone New Zealand (now One NZ) agreed to merge, with Sky TV purchasing 100% of Vodafone NZ operations for a cash payment of $1.25 billion NZD and issuing new shares to the Vodafone Group. Vodafone UK will get 51% stake of the company. However, the proposed merger was rejected by the
Commerce Commission which saw a plunge in Sky TV's shares. Sky continued to be a wholesale channel provider to Vodafone until 31 March 2023.
Unbundling, IVP project and departure of CEO In late February 2018, Sky TV announced that it would be splitting its existing Sky Basic service into two new packages called Sky Starter and Sky Entertainment, giving new and existing customers the option of building bundles. The Sky Starter package would cost $24.91 monthly, replacing the earlier Sky Basic service which cost $49.91 monthly with extra charges for sports, movie, and other premier channels. The price reduction came in response to fierce competition from streaming services such as
Netflix,
Lightbox, and
Amazon Prime Video, which had caused the loss of 38,000 satellite subscribers the previous year. Unlike its competitors, Sky TV was dependent on a linear broadcasting model and its exclusive rights to
rugby union,
rugby league,
netball, and
cricket content. While Sky TV hoped that this change would attract new customers, the company's stock market shares dropped by 10% in response to investor concerns about future revenue, knocking NZ$100 million off its market value. In early March 2018, it was reported that Sky TV CEO John Fellet was pursuing talks with Netflix and Amazon Prime to share content and services. Fellet hoped to mimic the UK-based television company
Sky plc's success in negotiating a bundling package with Netflix. On 26 March 2018, John Fellet announced his intention to step down from his position, after being CEO for 17 years. Fellet had been with the company since 1991, first as chief operating officer before taking on the chief executive role in January 2001. On 21 February 2019, Martin Stewart replaced John Fellet as CEO. He had previously worked for
BSkyB,
The Football Association and
OSN. On 1 December 2020, Stewart left the company to return home to Europe. Sophie Maloney was immediately appointed to the CEO position.
Focus on streaming In February 2015, Sky launched its own subscription-based video streaming service called
Neon. Sky had initially planned to launch Neon in 2014 but was delayed by systems bugs. On 16 August 2019, Sky announced it had purchased Coliseum Sports Media's global rugby streaming service RugbyPass for approximately US$40 million. The Disney channels (Disney Channel and Disney Junior) were removed on 30 November 2019, causing anger from subscribers. Sky Movies Disney was replaced by Sky Movies Family from 1 November 2019. The company still had some Disney titles stocked "well into 2020". On 19 December 2019, it was announced that Sky would be purchasing
Spark New Zealand's streaming service
Lightbox. On 14 June 2020, Sky confirmed that Lightbox would be merged into the Neon app on 7 July 2020. The merged service retains the Neon brand but uses Lightbox's interface and includes content drawn from both Neon and the old Lightbox.
Launch of broadband service On 21 May 2020, Sky announced its plans to launch
fibre broadband internet plans in 2021. Sky raised $157 million from investors with a discounted share issue to cover the cost of entering the broadband market. On 24 March 2021, Sky launched the broadband service initially for existing satellite customers only. Sky later expanded the offering to new customers on 17 May 2021.
Pursuing partnerships On 22 August 2019, it was announced that Sky had signed a six-year agreement to take over from
Westpac as the naming sponsor of
Wellington Regional Stadium, effective 1 January 2020. On 28 November 2019, Sky announced that
TVNZ would be its free-to-air broadcast partner for the
2020 Summer Olympics, instead of its own free-to-air channel
Prime. On 27 October 2020, Sky announced a partnership with Spark, where the Sky Sport Now streaming service would be bundled with Spark Sport for an NZ$49.99 monthly subscription. On 9 June 2021, Sky announced an exclusive partnership with
Disney to provide Sky Broadband customers with a 12-month subscription to the
Disney+ streaming service. On 24 June 2021, Sky announced a partnership with
Discovery New Zealand to provide coverage of
The Championships, Wimbledon for free-to-air channel
Three. In response to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sky removed Russian state TV channel
RT from its programming. Sky spokesperson Chris Major stated that their decision to remove RT came following complaints from customers and consultation with the
Broadcasting Standards Authority. In July 2023,
Warner Bros. Discovery renewed its
HBO Max programme supply agreement with Sky but decline to confirm whether it would launch its own streaming service in New Zealand. On 22 October 2024, Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed a new partnership that would allow Sky to remain the exclusive distributor of
HBO and
Max content in New Zealand.
SoHo would also be revamped as a linear
HBO channel showing
HBO Original content. The Max hub and the revamped HBO channel would be hosted on Sky Box, Sky Pod and
Sky Go. The
Neon streaming service would also host the Max hub. On February 17, 2026, Warner Bros Discovery confirmed that it would be launching HBO Max as a standalone service in New Zealand from mid-2026, later confirmed to be 16 June 2026. Sky CEO Sophie Maloney confirmed that the two companies had not renewed their content sharing agreement following an internal review of content viewership on Sky TV and Neon. On 27 January 2026, Sky signed a new content partnership agreement with
Paramount Skydance that would give Sky and its Neon streaming service exclusive access to content from
Showtime,
Paramount+ and
CBS.
Satellite relocation In November 2024, Sky satellite customers began to notice a decline in the quality of their video, due to the end of support for
Optus D2 due May 2025. This issue worsened over time, and in January 2025, Sky officially announced its intention to switch from
Optus D2 to
Koreasat 6. Initially, Sky had planned to make a change to another Optus satellite in 2027–29, but Optus's satellite would not be operational by then. Customers were advised to tune in to channels 888 and 777 for satellite testing purposes. Sky started Koreasat 6 services on the morning of 14 April 2025, putting an end to months of signal loss.
Acquisition of Discovery NZ On 22 July 2025,
Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed it would sell its
New Zealand assets including the
Three TV channel and
ThreeNow streaming service to Sky TV, effective 1 August. On 28 July, Sky TV confirmed that Discovery NZ would be renamed
Sky Free following the acquisition due to legal reasons. Sky also filed trademark applications for the names and logos for Sky Free and
SkyFree with the
Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. Sky also confirmed that it would retain the Three TV and ThreeNow brands. On 13 August, Sky's chief media and data officer Lauren Quaintance, who played a role in Sky's acquisition of Three and boosting the company's advertising revenue, announced he would resign. Warner Bros. New Zealand and Australia's former head of networks, Juliet Peterson, also joined Sky's executive team with responsibility for managing the company's advertising revenue and business-to-business activities including the Sky Free channels. In February 2026, Sky TV confirmed it would cut over a dozen sales roles as part of its acquisition of Three, citing a "softer" advertising market, rising costs for its Sky Sport Now streaming service, and the expected loss of
HBO Max content in mid-2026.
New in-house channels In July 2025, Sky announced the removal of the Paramount networks when its contract expired. In November 2025, it was announced that Sky would replace
Cartoon Network and the Paramount networks with new in-house channels. Cartoon Network content will move to Sky Go, while Nickelodeon will be replaced by Sky Kids and Comedy Central by Sky Comedy. To replace MTV and MTV 80s, it announced the return of Juice TV and J2. These channels will be operational from 2 December 2025. Sky justified the decision on the dissatisfaction its subscribers have with constant repeats on its affiliate channels. ==Products and services==