In H2 2025, Sky NZ generated 64M NZD in advertising revenue, compared to 30M in 2024. This significant growth has to be seen in the light of the acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery’s FTA linear and streaming assets in New Zealand (through Discovery NZ), in last August. Indeed, without those assets, Sky NZ’s ad revenue would have matched 2024’s revenue at 30M, already a positive outcome as the 2024 fiscal period benefited from incremental revenues due to the Paris Olympics. In detail, Sky Free, the new entity that combines the acquired FTA channels (Bravo, Eden, Rush, HGTV, and most importantly, Three) and the BVOD platform ThreeNow, generated 34M, including 8M from digital, in only 5 months of operations. With Three and ThreeNow, Sky NZ will be able to enter a new dimension in the FTA and ad-supported landscape, ready to challenge TVNZ, the local FTA leader. TVNZ generated 266M NZD (through TV and streaming) in advertising revenue in its last fiscal year ended 30th June 2025. The BVOD platforms TVNZ+ and ThreeNow boast respectively more than 1.6M and 700K users every week. Indeed, Sky NZ’s ambitions in ad-supported streaming are very recent, and only contributed to 5M NZD in the last 6 months of 2025. Indeed, ads were introduced on Neon in January 2024, followed by Sky Sport Now in October 2024, and finally by Sky Go, whose digital advertising revenue stream opened last October. However, Sky NZ’s main competitors in streaming, besides TVNZ, remain international platforms, should it be Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video (the latter recently introduced ads on its platform) in pay streaming, or YouTube in AVOD. Sky Free should contribute to fuel synergies between SkyNZ’s different assets and help Sky NZ face this competition.
