Chaz Savage left Igloo only weeks after launching the TVNZ/Sky TV joint venture. Sim Ahmed talks to him as he prepares to leave, discussing what caused the six month delay of Igloo, the future of the product, and what he will be doing in his new role heading Telstra’s T-box offerring in Australia.
Igloo boss Chaz Savage has resigned from the fledgling pay TV venture, and is taking up a role with Telstra in Australia, according to a spokesperson for Igloo.
Almost one year after it was officially announced (and a bit longer after it was unofficially announced), Sky and TVNZ’s joint venture Igloo has finally got its googly-eyed mascots to deliver its set-top boxes into the wild. And it’s also launched its brand campaign, via Sugar&Partners.
News surfaced this week that Sky and TVNZ had a date with the Commerce Commission after a complaint was laid about their joint venture Igloo and whether it met merger obligations under Section 47 of the Commerce Act. So if the decision goes against it, will it put the kybosh on the new mid-play TV network?
When we found out Sky and TVNZ were building an Igloo together, we heard Barnes, Catmur & Friends and Sugar were the two agencies in the hunt for the account. And Sugar has come out victorious.
When we asked TVNZ’s head of digital Eric Kearley in early November whether TVNZ was working with Sky and would launch a set-top box before the digital switchover, he flat out said no. But last night Sky and TVNZ brought out the big PR guns and officially launched “New Zealand’s worst kept secret”, Igloo, the mid-play TV network that offers both pay and free-to-air channels. And while there’s plenty to shout about with the new offer, there are still questions lingering about its modus operandi and whether MediaWorks will play nice.