Sky TV grounds cricket drone following Dunedin incident

The Sky TV drone camera. Photo / Getty Images

Sky TV's drone camera has been grounded until the Cricket World Cup following an incident in Dunedin.

Sky spokeswoman Kirsty Way yesterday confirmed the drone would not be seen again in New Zealand until the tournament began in Christchurch on February 14.

The "pause" would give Sky time to tighten health and safety and other processes relating to the drone's use. "There's a few processes that we're just reflecting on and making sure that we're operating everything properly, but you will see it again.

"There's absolutely plans to use it for the Cricket World Cup," she said.

The decision followed an incident in Dunedin on Friday, when Sky's drone was competing for airspace with a privately operated "toy drone" launched from nearby Logan Park.

The incident occurred just before the start of the Black Caps' ODI against Sri Lanka, played before nearly 5000 fans at University Oval.

Ms Way said the incident was among the reasons Sky had decided to review its use of the drone.

"That's just one of those situations that we want to be more prepared for in how to deal with that... We weren't comfortable with that other drone being there, because we don't want to cause an incident."