NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Budget 2025
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business / Media Insider

Media Insider: Sky TV switches to new satellite - ‘huge relief’ as months of bad reception come to an end

Shayne Currie
By Shayne Currie
NZME Editor-at-Large·NZ Herald·
14 Apr, 2025 08:27 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

An artist's impression of Sky TV's Koreasat 6 satellite, which has taken over from the Optus D2 satellite.

An artist's impression of Sky TV's Koreasat 6 satellite, which has taken over from the Optus D2 satellite.

A nervous early morning for Sky TV as it switches hundreds of thousands of customers to its new satellite. Here’s what to do if you are facing any issues.

Sky TV has this morning switched to its new satellite, 36,000km above Earth, and most customers have changed over seamlessly. It was a “huge relief”, a Sky TV spokeswoman told Media Insider.

Sky says a small number of black- and white-box customers might need to reboot their machines – a simple turn off/turn on at the wall for 10 seconds should do the trick.

After months of issues with its ailing and wobbly Optus D2 satellite causing bad TV reception for many customers, the pay TV company started the switchover to its new Koreasat 6 satellite about 4.30am on Tuesday morning.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“And now we wait… apocalypse or success,” one customer wrote on an unofficial Sky TV customer complaints page on Facebook.


Most of the feedback on the Facebook page – which has more than 9000 followers – indicated that the switchover was progressing positively, especially for those with black boxes.

Customers’ TV reception was expected to be affected for up to 90 minutes while the changeover occurred.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Those customers with a black Sky Box were presented with a T100 message, saying “atmospheric conditions have temporarily interrupted your viewing”.

The message that Sky black box customers would have seen during the satellite switchover.
The message that Sky black box customers would have seen during the satellite switchover.

“And just like that it has come back on,” one black-box customer wrote on Facebook. “I hope that’s a good indicator.”

Those with white boxes should have been automatically switched to a broadband internet connection while the changeover happened.

However, a small number of white box customers were having issues, judging by comments on the Facebook page.

“Turned our white box on about 20 minutes ago. Working fine. Then it went off and said it was reconnecting to satellite. Then said had to reboot. Still waiting, not doing anything,” one customer wrote.

Another said: “Seemed to work ok. Then up popped ‘something went wrong.’ Whoops, there was an unknown error, retry??? Could be a long day for Sky…”

Sky TV said initial testing showed the switchover had been completed successfully, “with the vast majority of customers switching over seamlessly”.

“In some instances, customers may need to restart their box to continue watching (a simple process of turning the box off at the wall and waiting 10 seconds),” said a spokeswoman.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney.
Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney.

In a statement, Sky chief executive Sophie Moloney said technology projects of this scale always carried “risk and complexity”.

“We are delighted to confirm that the switch to the new satellite successfully occurred in the early hours of this morning,” she said.

“Post switchover testing and customer engagement activities are now underway. Customer care and operations teams are working to support any customers who require assistance to connect to the new satellite and optimise their set up, noting that customers on the new Sky Box with sufficient broadband connectivity will continue to access services via IP if their satellite service is disrupted.”

She said the new satellite was expected to deliver a “superior signal strength to almost all of New Zealand”.

A message on Sky TV's social media channels this morning.
A message on Sky TV's social media channels this morning.

Sky was “continuing to engage” with customers in parts of lower Southland, and upper Northland, where some properties might have reduced signal strength from the new satellite, given their location.

“Sky has already upgraded many dishes in these areas (including all customers in Gisborne and the East Cape that we believed might require support), but is working at pace to visit the remaining customers in areas where their properties may benefit from a dish upgrade or slight tweak of their set-up.”

According to an investor presentation in February, the company has 465,000 customers with Sky Boxes or Sky Pods, down from 501,000 a year ago.

The satellite switchover comes after months of pain for thousands of Sky customers who have been suffering intermittent (and sometimes full) loss of TV reception.

Sky TV customers have been posting videos, images and stories of their satellite  issues since late last year.
Sky TV customers have been posting videos, images and stories of their satellite issues since late last year.

The issues have been caused by the existing and ageing Optus D2 satellite – it is fading fast, running out of fuel and wobbling in an inclined orbit.

In February, Sky reported the 14-year-old makeshift satellite Koreasat 6, which will be used for at least the next two years, was “now successfully positioned at 160 degrees east, the same position as the existing D2 satellite”.

In an email to customers in early April, Sky told customers that its switchover to Koreasat 6 was on track for the week beginning Monday, April 14.

Sky said customers needed to keep their black Sky Box “plugged in and turned on” at the wall until the switchover is complete (the box can be on standby mode).

This was for two important reasons, said the spokeswoman - one, to ensure customers receive the latest software upgrade, and two, to support an automatic and quick switch to the new satellite.

A spokeswoman said the switchover would take place early in the morning.

“We’re anticipating the switchover process will take around an hour, which is why we’re doing it in the early hours of the morning – hopefully most customers won’t even notice it’s happened.”

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Media Insider

Premium
Media Insider

Breakfast battle: Hosking v Barnett ratings and Bridge is back; RNZ cuts: What's in line?

22 May 11:24 PM
Premium
Media Insider

RNZ funding slashed, minister wants stronger audience reach, trust levels

22 May 02:49 AM
Premium
Technology

Google NZ sends $1b offshore as it increases profit, threat of digital sales tax melts away

21 May 10:46 PM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Media Insider

Premium
Breakfast battle: Hosking v Barnett ratings and Bridge is back; RNZ cuts: What's in line?

Breakfast battle: Hosking v Barnett ratings and Bridge is back; RNZ cuts: What's in line?

22 May 11:24 PM

Ted Lasso meets Drive to Survive in Auckland FC doco; Rock legend and a Kiwi ad campaign.

Premium
RNZ funding slashed, minister wants stronger audience reach, trust levels

RNZ funding slashed, minister wants stronger audience reach, trust levels

22 May 02:49 AM
Premium
Google NZ sends $1b offshore as it increases profit, threat of digital sales tax melts away

Google NZ sends $1b offshore as it increases profit, threat of digital sales tax melts away

21 May 10:46 PM
Premium
Outspoken NZME shareholder sells out of media firm; Jim Grenon lifts stake to 13%

Outspoken NZME shareholder sells out of media firm; Jim Grenon lifts stake to 13%

21 May 06:32 PM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP