New Sky boss gets ball rolling with price-cut for Fan Pass online sports service

Thursday, 11 April 2019

Sky TV isn't saying whether it will bring back daily or weekly access to Fan Pass, but does say more changes are in the pipeline.

Sky Television will cut the price of its Fan Pass sports service to $39 a month, down from the current price of $56.

The price cut, which takes effect next Thursday, appears the first notable step by new chief executive Martin Stewart to offer more value to customers since he took over the running of the company in February.

Sky TV chief executive Martin Stewart has nailed his mast to seeing off threats to Sky Sport.

It applies to customers who sign up for a six-month term. Otherwise the price is $59, down from $100.

Fan Pass provides internet access to Sky Sport channels 1 to 4.

* Sky TV slashes Fan Pass sports service**

It can be used to play the sports channels on televisions by using a device such as Google Chromecast.

Spokeswoman Kristy Martin would not say whether Sky was considering bringing back daily or weekly versions of Fan Pass.

These were axed by former chief executive John Fellet in 2017 in a surprise move that Spark boss Simon Moutter blasted at the time as an 'extraordinary demonstration of backward thinking and monopolistic pricing power'.

But Martin said the price cut for its monthly Fan Pass service was 'the first of a number of changes that we plan to make to Fan Pass, all with a view to appealing to a wider number of sports fans'.

Martin vowed last month to make sure Sky remained 'the home of sports' despite Spark eating into sports broadcasting rights by securing the rights to broadcast events such as this year Rugby World Cup and the English Premier League from next season.

Sky said customers who were already signed up to Fan Pass for six months would see the price cut applied to their next monthly bill.

This story has been corrected to state the current price of Fan Pass is $56, not $59 as originally stated, on a six-month term.