With the Rugby World Cup "now a memory," tens of thousands of Kiwis are "switching off Sky Television's satellite service, the company has warned investors," according to Tom Pullar-Strecker of STUFF. The warning "wiped" more than NZ$340M ($233M) off the value of the company by mid-afternoon on Friday, with Sky's shares plunging 16% to NZ$4.60 ($3.15). Sky forecasts the number of customers for its core pay-TV service -- which is priced from NZ$49.22 ($33.66) a month -- "would drop by 45,000 in the year to the end of June." Sky has "faced increased competition" from other Internet TV services such as Netflix and Spark's Lightbox service. A statement from the company said that the forecast fall in satellite subscribers was "due to a number of factors, but it highlighted the impact of the Rugby World Cup coming to an end," which had impacted "the roll off of subscriber contracts." First New Zealand Capital analyst Arie Dekker said that the "impact on the company would depend in part on whether it was Sky Basic or higher-value customers who were cancelling their subscriptions" (STUFF, 5/6).
