2010 FIFA World Cup™ Live On Sky, TVNZ

Full Coverage Of The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Live On Sky And TVNZ

SKY Television and TVNZ, today announced the acquisition of the LIVE broadcast rights for the world's biggest sporting event, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, for New Zealand.

Under the agreement with Australasian rights holders SBS, SKY will provide full LIVE coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, hosted by South Africa. The coverage includes all the FIFA events leading up to the 2010 World Cup, including the Women's Under 17 World Cup which is being hosted in New Zealand later this month with SKY as the host broadcaster. Every match in this event will screen live on SKY with TVNZ showing the NZ games and the final delayed. Further events include the Women's Under 20 World Cup upcoming in November (including the NZ Under 20 team), and the Men's Under 17 and Under 20 World Cup events, along with the Confederations Cup through 2009, and the Women's Under 17 and Under 20 events in 2010.

"With a focus on featuring all 64 matches live, SKY is very excited to continue its commitment to New Zealand football fans. We are also pleased to be working with TVNZ once again, which will ensure comprehensive coverage for New Zealand viewers", says SKY's Director of Programming – Sport, Kevin Cameron.

TVNZ will screen eleven LIVE matches on TV ONE during the 2010 World Cup, plus daily highlights from all other games. The eleven LIVE matches that will screen on TV ONE include:

• The opening match
• 4 matches from Round 2
• 2 quarter finals
• Both the semi finals
• 3rd and 4th place final
• World Cup final

TVNZ will also provide delayed broadcast of those eleven games on the Sport Extra channel on the Freeview platform, as well as LIVE coverage of an additional eleven games and highlights packages from all other matches.

"We are delighted to continue our relationship with SKY in order to provide expansive coverage, across both networks, of this prestigious global event," says TVNZ's General Manager of Sport, Murray Needham. "TVNZ and SKY have brought the last two FIFA World Cup™ events to New Zealand homes. With the addition of Sport Extra on the Freeview platform, we're able to significantly increase our coverage on this occasion.

Qualifying matches are underway to determine the final 32 teams that will play in the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

"We are very pleased to welcome Sky TV and TVNZ into the FIFA broadcast family. These are two of the absolute leading broadcasters in New Zealand, and we are sure that they will do a fantastic job. They are planning excellent coverage of the upcoming FIFA events, including the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand, and we are certain that together we will be able to further promote football in the country", said FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke.

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About SKY Television

SKY Television is New Zealand's pre-eminent pay television operator, offering a wide range of sports, movies, music, on-demand and general content across more than 100 channels. SKY's channel line-up includes 7 sports channels, 6 movie channels, 7 general entertainment channels, 5 documentary channels, 5 news channels, 4 children's channels, as well as other niche and special interest channels. (As of 30 June 2008, SKY had 748,576 subscribers).

SKY launched as a three-channel UHF service in 1990, with two further channels added four years later. SKY's UHF signal reaches more than 83% of the country's 1.5 million households. In December 1998 SKY launched a digital satellite service, extending its reach to the whole country. More than 46% of New Zealand homes subscribe to SKY through its digital satellite and UHF networks.

SKY also offers pay-per-view movies, live events and interactive services including Skybet, the Weather Channel, and games channels Mind Games and Playin TV. SKY Online launched in May 2008, offering a broadband download service that enables SKY subscribers to download and watch movies, sport and general entertainment programmes on their home computers. SKY Online also offers a special archive of sport content produced by SKY.

With the establishment of a new on line DVD rental service and in December 2005, the launch of MY SKY, a new decoder incorporating a personal video recorder, SKY provides New Zealand viewers with even more entertainment options.

In July 2008 SKY launched MYSKYHDi, a new High Definition decoder and PVR with Dolby Digital surround sound, IPTV capability and increased storage. SKY currently offers four MPEG 4 High Definition television channels (SKY Sport 1 and 2, SKY Movies and SKY Movies Greats) and TV3 HD to subscribers.

On 8 February 2006, SKY completed the purchase of the New Zealand television business of PRIME Television Ltd. The acquisition of a free-to-air channel now gives SKY the opportunity to showcase its channels and programmes whilst ensuring that New Zealand consumers can view delayed free-to-air sports programmes such as rugby, rugby league and cricket in primetime.

For further information, please visit SKY's web site at www.skytv.co.nz

About TVNZ

TVNZ is New Zealand's biggest free-to-air broadcaster and is also the nation's television public broadcaster. TVNZ operates four channels, TV ONE and TV2, and another two digital-only channels, TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7, which are broadcast through the Freeview platform. TVNZ also operates a website, www.tvnz.co.nz, and an online "catch up TV" service called TVNZ ondemand.

The TVNZ Charter provides a guide to its broadcasting responsibilities and makes it clear that TVNZ's role is to reflect and explore what it means to be a New Zealander. To New Zealanders this unique and special responsibility means quality television that educates, informs and entertains through local home grown programming and the best of international programming.

About SBS

The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is Australia's multicultural and multilingual public broadcaster. SBS is unique. Its radio and television services broadcast in more languages than any other network in the world. SBS Television is watched by more than seven million Australians each week. What they see is a unique mix of Australian-produced and international programs drawn from over 400 national and international sources. Programs in languages other than English - which comprise more than half the SBS Television schedule - are accessible to all viewers through SBS-produced English language subtitles.

For more information on SBS, visit www.sbs.com.au

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