Download Weekly: Sky upgrades Neon

Pay TV company to stream Spark Lightbox shows

From next month Sky TV will wrap Lightbox programmes into its Neon streaming TV service. The media company acquired rival streaming service Lightbox from Spark in December for $6 million.

On July 7 the two services will merge under the Neon brand. They will both use the Neon app.

Sky customers will continue to pay the same $13.95 monthly subscription. Existing Spark Lightbox customers will be able to add the merged service to their Spark bill at a discounted price of $9.95 a month. Some Spark customers previously had Lightbox for free.

A five year run

Lightbox lasted for five years at Spark. It was introduced as a streaming service before Netflix was officially on sale in New Zealand at a time when the main pay television option was Sky’s satellite service.

At first Lightbox was sold as a separate subscription. Over time Spark used the streaming service as a lure for broadband customers. After July there will be no more free Lightbox bundles.

While Sky plans to use the Neon brand, the underlying technology will come from Lightbox. Sky says Neon customers may need to refresh the app after the switchover.

Farmside reports moving day surge

Vodafone’s rural broadband unit Farmside says it picked up a spike in new customers immediately after June 1. That’s Moving Day in the dairy farming calendar. The day when dairy farmers traditionally move equipment, stock and people to new farms.

Farmside general manager Jason Sharp says the business has now passed 15,000 customers. Most connect via RBI fixed wireless but many have fibre or satellite connections.

Sharp also reports a 74 percent increase in RBI data and a 35 percent increase in satellite data during Covid–19 levels 3 and 4. Farmside says it was able to continue connecting remote customers during lockdown and prioritised work for those who needed a physical installation.

InternetNZ to market firewall

InternetNZ has introduced its first security product: Defenz. It is a domain name system firewall. The organisation says its firewall will protect organisations and businesses from threats such as phishing attacks, malware, ransomeware and botnets.

Defenz also blocks any malware on a local network from reaching the internet. InternetNZ says no extra equipment is needed to use Defenz and it does not slow down an internet connection. The firewall will be available for free for a four month trial period. InternetNZ has not yet determined the final price but expects it to cost about $1 per seat per month.

Vodafone offers Microsoft management tool

Vodafone is offering customers CoreView, a Microsoft 365 management tool. CoreView is a software-as-a-service product and comes from an independent software developer that shares the product name. It gives managers an overview of Microsoft 365 use. Among other things CoreView can manage licences, spot security vulnerabilities and identify misconfigured software. Vodafone has exclusive rights to CoreView in New Zealand.