Igloo (TV)

Igloo was a New Zealand prepaid pay TV service launched on 3 December 2012.[1][2][3][4] The Pace-supplied receiver provides customers access to free-to-air channels through Freeview, and previously a small selection of pay TV channels could be purchased for 30 days. On 1 March 2017, Igloo closed and the receiver was updated to allow viewers to use New Zealand's Freeview television service.

Igloo
TypeJoint-venture between Sky Network Television and TVNZ
IndustryPrepaid Subscription Television
FoundedDecember 2011
DefunctMarch 2017
Headquarters
Auckland, New Zealand
Key people
John Fellet, CEO of Sky
Peter Macourt, Chairman of Sky
Sir John Anderson, Chairman of TVNZ, Chaz Savage, GM of IGLOO
ProductsIgloo Prepaid Pay TV
Websiteigloo.co.nz

History

Igloo was founded by Sky Network Television and TVNZ in December 2011. Details were announced on December 8 via a press release. Sky held a 51% share in the venture while TVNZ, the minority shareholder has 49%. TVNZ later sold their shares back to Sky in 2013 before completely exiting the venture in 2014.[5]

Igloo was originally scheduled to start during the first half of 2012,[6] however, they encountered delays and had to push the launch date back to December 2012.[7] The service offered free-to-air HD (via terrestrial), along with pay TV channels provided by Sky, to a set top box being developed by Sky. It used digital terrestrial frequencies owned by Sky previously used for their analogue terrestrial offering (which is no longer offered). Sky was required to make use of the spectrum or it would be taken by the Government.

In July 2016 Sky announced that Igloo will end its transmissions from March 2017. Customers will no longer be able to purchase Igloo Channel Packs, watch Front Row events or Igloo On Demand. Igloo boxes will still be able to receive Freeview channels but without any technical support or the EPG.[8][9]

Service

The service was targeted at individuals who may not be able to commit to a contract or do not need all of the channels available from the regular Sky pay TV offering.[10]

Viewers could order live sport events via pay-per-view on the Front Row channel, as well as stream TV shows and movies using a broadband connection. The device provided by Igloo has the ability to "live pause" when a USB flash drive is inserted (as there is no hard disk drive built into the device). An 8GB flash drive will allow for around 60 minutes of live pause.[11]

Pay-channel broadcasting was DVB-T2 256-QAM transport via UHF channel 30 (546 MHz) or 31 (554 MHz). This was separate from the DVB-T 64-QAM transports used by Freeview.

Channels

Sky and TVNZ defined a virtual channel ordered that groups channels by importance to the service operator as follows.

General entertainment channels were below 20 which included TVNZ's free-to-air TV One (selected HD), free-to-air TV2 (selected HD), TVNZ Heartland and TVNZ Kidzone24, MediaWorks' free-to-air TV3 (selected HD) and free-to-air Four, free-to-air Prime, Front Row (pay-per-view sports), News Corporation's National Geographic, Viacom Media Networks channels MTV Hits and Comedy Central, Vibe, BBC Worldwide's BBC UKTV, BBC Knowledge and BBC World News, Food Television and Discovery Communications' Animal Planet.

All other national Freeview channels spilled over from 20 to 29 and 35 and from 50 to 59 which included timeshifted hour delay channels for TV One, TV2, TV3 and Four, government funded Maori TV and Parliament TV, Trackside, ChoiceTV, The Shopping Channel, World TV's Chinese channels CTV8 and TV9 and the Christian channels Firstlight and Hope Channel.

Kordia locally inserted channels were from 30 to 34 which for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty is tvCentral, for Rotorua are TV Rotorua and Info-Rotorua, for Auckland is TV33 and for Whangarei is Channel North.

Freeview audio only radio channels were from 36 to 39 which includes BaseFM.

Former digital H.222 transport (now closed)
DVB encrypted Terrestrial Services on transport 65 via the DTT – Sky New Zealand DVB network
Service Description Irdeto LCN DVB name Streams
4101 Animal focused reality TV 13 Animal Planet 2001 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3001 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 2101 (teletext subtitle), 1101 (Irdeto key control)
4102 BBC Worldwide news and information service 16 BBC World News 2002 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3002 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1102 (Irdeto key control)
4103 US and UK re-run sitcoms, stand-up and sketch comedy 9 Comedy Central 2003 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3003 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1103 (Irdeto key control)
4104 BBC Worldwide soap operas, re-run dramas and comedies 7 BBC UKTV 2004 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3004 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 2104 (teletext subtitle), 1104 (Irdeto key control)
4105 UK/Australian/US DIY and competition cooking 12 Food TV 2005 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3005 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1105 (Irdeto key control)
4106 BBC Worldwide documentaries and reality TV 11 BBC Knowledge 2006 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3006 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 2106 (teletext subtitle), 1106 (Irdeto key control)
4107 Music video compilations 15 MTV Hits 2007(H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3007 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1107 (Irdeto key control)
4108 TVNZ-owned packaging of youth shows 14 TVNZ Kidzone24 2008 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3008 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1108 (Irdeto key control)
4109 US/Australian documentaries and reality TV 8 National Geographic 2009 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3009 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 2109 (teletext subtitle), 1109 (Irdeto key control)
4110 TVNZ-owned archived and funded material 17 TVNZ Heartland 2010 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3010 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 2110 (teletext subtitle), 1110 (Irdeto key control)
4111 US/UK re-runs and reality TV 10 Vibe 2011 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3011 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1111 (Irdeto key control)
4112 Pay-per-view events 6 Front Row 2012 (H.264@2Mbit/s – 720x576ix25), 3012 (HE-AACv2@32kbit/s – 48000x2), 1112 (Irdeto key control)

See also

References
  1. "IGLOO". Igloo New Zealand. Igloo TV. 8 December 2011. Archived from the original on 29 December 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  2. NZ Herald (8 December 2011). "Rivalry thaws with Igloo deal". NZ Herald. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  3. Pullar, Tom (7 December 2011). "Igloo pay-TV details released". Stuff New Zealand. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  4. "Igloo aims for pre-Christmas launch". Stuff. 12 November 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  5. "TVNZ Announces 25% Increase in Profit". throng.co.nz. 29 August 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  6. Sky Television (24 November 2011). "Media Release: SKY and TVNZ Partner To Launch A New Digital Pay Television Service". Sky Network Television. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  7. Pullar, Tim (25 June 2012). "Igloo TV service launch delayed". Stuff. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  8. Pullar-Strecker, Tom (8 July 2017). "Sky TV to shut down Igloo in March". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  9. "Igloo is Now Closed". Sky Television. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  10. "First look at Igloo". Throng New Zealand. 16 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  11. Brand Kreft (8 December 2011). "Igloo details confirmed". Throng New Zealand. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
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