Online challenge to Sky gives names, but no start date

Telecom has shone a light on its new TV service but is not saying when it will start.

The new internet-TV venture is called Lightbox and will be available in 90 per cent of New Zealand homes with broadband internet connections.

It will compete with subscription video-on-demand services Quickflix, Ezyflix and an unnamed new Sky service.

Lightbox's head of programming and local content, Maria Mahony, said the streamed programming would be available for a free 30-day trial which would enable customers to test the service and whether their broadband was up to the task.


The Telecom scheme has attracted a lot of interest because the company is taking on Sky TV, which dominates pay TV.

But it is not yet clear whether Lightbox will be able to secure top TV shows ahead of Sky.

Lightbox will stream TV content online for $15 a month. Sky has not revealed its prices.

Neither Telecom nor Sky TV have given a start date for their services.

Sky owns rights to many of its shows on the upmarket Soho Channel, but Lightbox has named only three of its shows.

The headliner is Vikings, a drama which has played on the History channel overseas.

The Telecom operation also has rights to the latest series and back copies of the long-running series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, and non- exclusive rights to series one to six of the slick US drama Mad Men, which has been on Soho.

Ms Mahony said Lightbox would initially have series programming only, but would expand to include movies and possibly sports.


Lightbox is starting with rights to around 5000 hours of programming but Ms Mahony said this would be increased.

January Jones and Jon Hamm in Mad Men.

Like Quickflix, Ezyflix and the new Sky streaming service, Lightbox does not require a set-top box.

Customers who register can watch programming on up to five designated devices such as computers, iPads and Airplay on Apple TV. There is no contract or installation cost.

Ms Mahony acknowledged that streaming programming would eat into broadband data allowances.

She said data caps were getting bigger, but the company was also talking to Telecom's Xtra and other ISPs about deals on bigger data caps.

On the box

Shows planned for Lightbox:

• Vikings, exclusive rights

• 24, new series and previous episodes

• Mad Men, series one to six