Mark Callander, Chief Executive Officer of CallPlus and Slingshot was excited about the opportunity as it will play a pivotal role in the company’s growth plans moving forward.
 
“Allowing our customers to add SKY to their Slingshot monthly invoice will not only deliver the convenience of one bill, but enables us to deliver great value bundle offerings for Slingshot customers. We are really looking forward to working with SKY to launch their television offering to our customers later this year. We already offer unmetering of the online iSKY service so we see this as a natural and mutually beneficial extension of that relationship,” he says.
 
John Fellet SKY Television Chief Executive Officer added, “We are delighted to welcome CallPlus as our new telecommunications partner. We know how successful the reselling of SKY services can be and believe that Mark and his team at Slingshot will deliver significant benefits to consumers by bundling SKY with their innovative ISP and voice products in the near future.”
 
Details on launch timing for Slingshot will be made available in due course.
 
-ends –
 
 
For further information, please contact:
Kirsty Way
Corporate Communications
SKY Television
t: +64 9 579 9999
m: + 64 21 422 794
e: kway@skytv.co.nz
 
Mark Callander
CEO CallPlus and Slingshot
m: 021 742 022
e: markc@callplus.co.nz
 
 
About SKY
 
SKY Television is New Zealand’s pre-eminent pay television operator, offering a wide range of sports, movies, music, on-demand and general entertainment content across more than 111 channels. SKY’s channel line-up includes 8 sports channels, 6 movie channels, 7 general entertainment channels, 6 documentary channels, 6 news channels, 6 children’s channels, as well as other niche and special interest channels. (As of 31 December 2010, SKY had 808,279 subscribers).
 
SKY launched as a three-channel UHF service in 1990, with two further channels added four years later. SKY’s UHF signal reached 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. The analogue UHF service closed down on 10 March 2010.
 
SKY also offers pay-per-view movies, live events and interactive services including Skybet, the Weather Channel, and games channels Mind Games and PlayinTV and is also the cornerstone shareholder in Fatso, New Zealand’s premier online DVD rental service.


 In July 2008 SKY launched MY SKY HDi, a new High Definition decoder and PVR with Dolby Digital surround sound, IPTV capability and increased storage. SKY currently offers eight MPEG 4 High Definition television channels (SKY Sport 1, 2 and 3, SKY Movies and SKY Movies Greats, TV3 HD, TVONE HD and TV2 HD) to subscribers.
 
On 24 November 2010, SKY launched iSKY, an online TV service that delivers SKY subscribers five live streaming channels, catch-up TV from 20 channels and an iSKY store offering online rental of premier and library movies and TV series.
 
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 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. For further information, please visit the web sites at www.sky.co.nz  www.skysport.co.nz  www.isky.co.nz
 
About CallPlus / Slingshot
Established in 1996, CallPlus is New Zealand’s largest 100% kiwi owned fixed line, voice, mobile and Internet company offering a full range of communication services in both business and residential markets through it CallPlus and Slingshot brands.  The company has a strong focus on innovation, service delivery and building customer value which has contributed to the significant customer and revenue growth over the last five years.  For more information visit www.slingshot.co.nz and www.callplus.co.nz.