Sky TV slashes pricing for its Fan Pass streaming sports service

The online service offers Sky Sport channels 1 to 4, streamed via website or the Fanpass app. Photo / Photosport

Sky TV has slashed the price of its Fan Pass service from $100 a month to $59 a month.

The online service offers Sky Sport channels 1 to 4, streamed via website or the Fan Pass app.

For those who sign up to Fan Pass for six months, the price will be $39 a month (the six-month price was previously $56 a month).

Sky says more changes to Fan Pass are on the way. The app faces new competition from Spark's $20/month Spark Sport, which is currently being used to stream Formula One races and will later this year be used for English Premier League soccer and the 2019 Rugby World Cup (which will carry extra charges, yet to be revealed) among other sports.

The move reverses a Fan Pass price hike in 2017, when then CEO John Fellet appeared to fear the service would cannibalise Sky's traditional satellite business.

In a March 21 interview, new Sky TV chief executive Martin Stewart offered blunt criticism of Fan Pass.

"The problem is that we've got 12 channels and our affiliate partners on Sky Sport. We put four onto Fan Pass," he said.

"Then we say, 'You can only have it on two devices.'

"Then we say, 'You can't cast it to a big screen.'

"And if all that hasn't been enough to put you off buying it, we make it $99.99 [a month]."

New Sky TV chief executive Martin Stewart. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

Stewart promised a Fan Pass app with more attractive pricing, the ability to stream content to big screen TV and a lot more content, soon - though four weeks into his tenure, he won't be pinned down on an exact timeline.

Read more of his inaugural interview here.