It’s not secret that I’ve been a fan of Sky’s Fan Pass. The ability to stream sport without needing to have a Sky TV subscription and being able to choose a Day, Week or Monthly pass made consuming sport more accessible than ever.

Sky today announced changes to Fan Pass that effectively make it arguably, Sky’s most unaffordable and inflexible offering to-date. From 24 May Fan Pass users will no longer be able to purchase a Day or Weekly pass. The changes don’t stop there though, the cost of a monthly pass is set to skyrocket, going from $55.99 per month to $99.99 per month. No that wasn’t a typo, Fan Pass is set to cost users a cold hundy per month which is more than the cost of a Sky Basic package with Sky Sport added on which comes in at $79.81 per month.

In a bid to cushion the blow Sky says that current subscribers with a Recurring Monthly Pass can continue to pay $55.99 until February 2018. A new 6 monthly pass will also be on offer for a discounted upfront cost of $329.99

In an email to subscribers Sky explained the increase by stating that:

“We wanted Fan Pass to give Kiwis the freedom to dip in and out of sport by offering short-term flexible passes. However, sports rights aren’t cheap and it’s just not stacking up for us as much as we’ve tried to make it work.

Whilst there is no doubt that sports rights aren’t cheap when you look at the changes coming to Fan Pass, Sky is right in stating that something is just not stacking up and that is the new six monthly Fan Pass.

With a six month Fan Pass costing $329.99 that comes in at $54.99 per month which is actually $1 per month cheaper than the current monthly Fan Pass. If the cost of sports rights were truly the reason behind the removal of Day and Weekly Passes as well as the increased price to a Monthly Pass then it doesn’t add up that a six monthly pass ends up being cheaper than the current Monthly Pass option.

Such a decent upfront cost is bound to be unpalatable for the average Kiwi so it would seem that Sky is giving six monthly users the discounted price by leveraging off the increase in costs to the bulk who purchase the Monthly Pass. Pricing changes are always going to go down like a bag of wet cement but in this case it may well end up bringing up the complete demise of Fan Pass as cord cutters such as myself look to make that call to resubscribe to standard Sky TV in order to get there Sport at a cheaper monthly cost. In fact conspiracy theorists may well argue that maybe, just maybe Fan Pass has been better received than Sky intended and led to more people cancelling there Sky subscription thus making this price change Sky’s attempt to get people to get out the gaffer tape and put that cord they cut back together again…

What do you think about the changes to Fan Pass? Do you even care? Is this article absolute drivel? Whatever your answer leave a comment below.

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