As Spark Sport enters final days, Sky Sport Now gets annual sub price hike

Don't look at the bill. Photo / Photosport

With streaming rival Spark Sport in its last month of life, Sky TV is raising the price of an annual subscription to its Sky Sport Now app.

From July 1, the price of Sky Sport Now Annual Pass will increase by 12.5 per cent from $399.99 to $449.99.

Customers will be informed over the course of this month. Some have already been contacted.

A Sky spokeswoman said the rationale was the same as when the price of a Sky Sport Now Month Pass was increased by $5 to $44.99 (there are no monthly or weekly pass price increases on July 1).

That is: “The cost to acquire sports rights and produce quality content continues to increase.”

The pay-TV broadcaster now also has more content on its slate - which it says offers more value and, with some sporting codes, saves sports fans from subscribing to two different services to see all the action involving their team.

Late last year, Sky regained rights from Spark for men’s and women’s Rugby World Cup competitions through to 2029. Sky also won back English Premier League football rights from Spark with a six-season deal. And on December 15 - the same day it was announced that Spark Sport content would shift to TVNZ - Sky revealed it had seized back Formula 1 as well.

Still, one subscriber - who was emailed by Sky about the price increase on June 6 - was unimpressed. He called the level of price rise “absurd” next to a $299 Black Friday deal that Sky offered last November.

With cricket free on TVNZ from July 1, he was considering only subscribing to Sky Sport Now during winter “for the rugby” via a series of Month Passes.

The Sky spokeswoman said, “The Annual Pass remains the best-value subscription on Sky Sport Now at $449.99.”

“The Annual Pass works out as $37.49 per month - a saving of $90 over the course of 12 months. The other options are the Month Pass for $44.99 a month or the Week Pass for $19.99. The price of the monthly and weekly passes is not changing.”

Spark Sport had its final billing month in May, and is free to all-comers until it closes on June 30. Registration is required to watch some of the streaming service’s final content - which will include the Champions League final on Sunday and the first Ashes test next week - but no credit card details.

Yesterday, TVNZ revealed details of how it will present ex-Spark Sport content on its free-to-air channels and TVNZ+. There was one pain point, with football absent from the lineup. Spark Sport had rights to Uefa content including the Euro 2024 and 2028 tournaments. TVNZ said it was in negotiations with Uefa.

Sky’s net profit dipped 7 per cent to $26 million for the first half of its 2023 financial year as revenue rose 2 per cent to $379 million.

A number of streaming services have raised prices above the level of inflation over the past year, including Sky’s Neon with a 12.5 per cent increase to $17.99 per month last August, and Disney+, which increased the cost of its annual pass by 10 per cent to $149.99 in December. Netflix has held the line, albeit after a 14 per cent price increase in 2021.