The next-generation Vodafone TV. Video / Chris Keall
Vodafone is shifting around 6500 Wellington and Christchurch customers on its cable TV service, TBox, to its newer Vodafone TV.
The telco says TBox - elements of whose technology dates from the early 2000s - will stop working in a few months.
A $149 Vodafone TV box offers 500 hours of cloud-based storage and can deliver all of Sky TV's channels and supports third-party streaming services including Netflix, Neon, YouTube, iHeart Radio and Amazon's Prime Video at up to 4K (ultra high definition) resolution.
A Vodafone TV box and remote (foreground). The service delivers Sky and free-to-air channels over UFB fibre or cable, eliminating the need for a Sky dish, and supports apps like Netflix.
All of the content is delivered via broadband, eliminating the need for a Sky dish.
A Vodafone TV unit will be provided free to the affected customers, the company says. They will also get a new modem. Monthly pricing will be "similar or lower", a spokeswoman says.
Vodafone TV is billed as a DIY-install device that can be setup in minutes. Some TBox customers have raised fears about its different interface, and cloud rather than hard drive storage - but Vodafone says a free in-home visit from a technician is on offer for those who need a helping hand.
"We just kicked off with groups in Miramar, Wellington and New Brighton, Christchurch (we will be doing it in waves to ensure we have enough available slots for our in-home technician visits)."
Vodafone's move comes as the sands of the entertainment industry continue to shift.
Sky TV, which as once a close partner of Spark, before later attempting a merger with Vodafone NZ, has recently said it will partner with Vocus (owner of Orcon and Slingshot) for its pending Sky Broadband service (Vodafone says events will have no impact on Vodafone TV, which is available to customers of any ISP).
A customer survey late last year indicated that Sky is considering cut-price bundled broadband plans to keep its pay-TV customers loyal, and attract new subs.
An image from a Sky customer survey. It moots a next-gen Sky box that lets customers load apps like Netflix and Disney+ alongside Sky's own content - a model similar to Vodafone TV.
And Sky is due to introduce a new set-top box option - possibly as soon as mid-year - that will have similar features to Vodafone TV, including support for third-party apps like Netflix (it's still in the balance whether Spark Sport - a conspicuous omission from Vodafone TV's app line-up - will be part of the mix).
For its part, Vodafone says its TBox customers will be better off after they're transitioned to the newer Vodafone TV.
The hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network that runs in parts of Wellington and Christchurch today by a company called Saturn Communications, which was sold to Telstra in 1999, then became part of TelstraClear after the Aussie telco bought local telco Clear. TelstraClear was, in turn, bought by Vodafone NZ in 2012 - which has since spent millions upgrading the HFC network.
"Technology is constantly evolving, meaning periodically we need to migrate customers who are using older products and services to newer technology," the Vodafone spokeswoman said today.
"Vodafone's legacy cable TV product, TBox, and older HFC broadband modems were first deployed in the early 2000s, and run on older Docsis 2.0 technology, which will stop working in the next few months.
"Our teams have started contacting the few thousand customers who still use this legacy equipment to get them set up with newer technology, so they can continue to enjoy Vodafone's broadband and TV services without interruption."
The spokeswoman declined to say how many customers were using Vodafone TV, but said it was "many more" than the 6500 still on TBox.
