New Deal Sees Sky Widen Broadband TV Offering
TV giant Sky is to extend the reach of its Sky By Wire service through a deal with Irish broadband provider, Magnet Networks.
The deal builds on Sky By Wire’s availability through Video Networks’ Homechoice service within London and the surrounding areas, offering the company’s customers in the capital access to Sky’s wholly owned sport and movie channels (see HomeChoice Unveils Campaign To Dominate London’s Media).
The launch of Sky By Wire in Ireland will enable customers to sign up to premium sports and movie channels directly from Sky in addition to existing communications and entertainment services provided by Magnet.
Channels available via Sky By Wire in Magnet Networks-equipped homes will include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra, Sky Movies 1 & 2, with 9 screens and Sky Cinema with 2 screens. Prices will range from £31.50 to £49.50 per month for customers with one set top box. However, as a special introductory offer, there will be a three month half price offer available to all Magnet customers who subscribe to Sky By Wire before 31 December.
The service will initially be available in parts of Dublin and Leinster, through Magnet Networks’ multi-play digital telephony, digital TV and highspeed digital broadband network. The two companies have plans to extend the service, however, reaching the rest of the city, as well as Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford in the next few months.
Sky hopes to extend the Sky By Wire service in the coming months, rolling out across further broadband networks throughout the country as the sector evolves.
Delia Bushell, managing director of Sky Ireland, said: Sky By Wire is a new service that offers customers more flexibility and demonstrates Sky’s commitment to take advantage of the emergence of alternative distribution networks. We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Magnet to launch Sky By Wire in Ireland and to extend the potential audience for Sky Sports and Sky Movies still further.”
Magnet Networks CEO, Ingvar Gardarsson, added: “We’re pleased to have concluded this agreement with Sky, and with the level of choice that it brings to our customers in terms of their television services. The selection of Magnet Networks as a distribution platform for Sky By Wire in Ireland is indicative both of the trust that Sky places in us as a company, and in the technical ability and quality of our network as a vehicle for delivering this new service.”
Earlier this year saw Sky acquire broadbrand operator EasyNet in a deal worth £211 million, giving the company a slice of the UK’s rapidly growing broadband marke and sparking rumours that it will soon move to offer its full television service via broadband as an alternative to satellite based delivery (see Sky Nets ISP For Triple Play Services).
Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com