Browsing: Slingshot

News
Horse’s mouth: Taryn Hamilton, M2 Group
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The ISP market has been buzzing lately with acquisitions, threats of legal action and an explosion of streaming services. Taryn Hamilton, M2 Group’s general manager of consumer for Slingshot, Orcon and Flip, sits down for a chat and lives up to his reputation of being a straight talker.

News
Netflix is vocal in its opposition to Global Mode, but is there bite behind the bark?
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While the nation’s other SVOD players are taking legal steps in regard to Global Mode, market newcomer Netflix has thus far been quiet in terms of its position on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to access international content. The company has not joined MediaWorks, TVNZ, Sky and Spark in the case, which is set clarify the legality of Global Mode in the local market. And this could largely come down to the fact that the company has little incentive to support the action.
PLUS: a look at the leaked emails from Sony executives on Netflix’s approach to geo-filtering.

News
Netflix to become the Netflix of NZ in March next year, plus: Neon unveils some of its lineup
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The last year has seen subscription video on demand (SVOD) become a major talking point, with various players vying to become the Netflix of New Zealand. However, claiming this title will now be difficult now following the recent announcement that the actual Netflix plans to launch in both Australia and New Zealand in March next year. PLUS: we look at Neon’s lineup.

News
Orcon takes a swipe at the big boys, Spark fights back—UPDATED
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“Orcon is shining the spotlight on bandwidth throttling used by big telcos, including Vodafone and Spark, in a new campaign that encourages Kiwis to look at the fine print before signing up to broadband plans that could unnecessarily be slowing then down,” touts the media release from Orcon that accompanies the launch of its new campaign featuring a plum-dressed dictator of ambigious origin removing the wig of what is meant to be the chief executive of a major telco (seemingly Spark, if the colour scheme of the faux promotional material is anything to go by). UPDATE: ASA confirms that complaints have been lodged.

News
Slingshot continues its incumbent nudging, aims to increase pricing transparency with Front Up
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Slingshot has shaken a few trees in recent months with its legally dubious Global Mode, which makes use of a workaround and lets Kiwi viewers access sites like Netflix and Hulu, and it’s fully embraced the Streisand Effect to get some more attention after a few major broadcasters decided not to show the ad. Now it’s continuing on that quest in a slightly different way by backing a new website called frontup.co.nz that shows how much Kiwis pay for goods and services in comparison to other markets.

News
Slingshot tries to turn Sky, TVNZ and MediaWorks advertising snub into marketing coup—UPDATED
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Yesterday, Slingshot sent out a release to the media saying that Sky had taken the “unjustified and petty” step not to play any ads from the internet service provider (ISP) that feature references to global mode, a new service that hides the IP addresses of users and gives them access to international video streaming websites such as Netflix and HULU. And now, in a follow-up announcement, Slingshot has confirmed that TVNZ has followed suit by also pulling the plug on ads that reference the controversial service that was unveiled a few weeks ago.

News
Awkward proposals, bizarre doctors and anti-climactic airport reunions
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Slingshot’s decision to open the door to give Kiwis access to geo-locked sites such as Netflix has come under scrutiny for potentially contravening international copyright laws, but this hasn’t dissuaded consumers from visiting the site. According to the Herald, the number of Slingshot customers accessing movie websites like Netflix has quadrupled since the internet company unblocked them several weeks ago. But with the growing popularity of the SVOD site, there comes the possibility of some serious brain warping. As indicated by three clips from the new US-based Netflix campaign, we could essentially be setting ourselves up for a future of awkward (but somehow endearing) proposals, bizarre visits to the doctor and anti-climactic airport reunions.

News
Slingshot walks the legal tightrope by giving Kiwis access to Netflix
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This morning, yet another bombshell hit the SVOD space with the announcement that Slingshot had introduced its global mode, which will give Kiwi subscribers access to services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer. This announcement comes only a week after Telecom launched its SVOD service called Lightbox and two weeks after Sky sent out a release saying that it was planning to launch a similar service in the near future.

Opinion
The year in review: James Hurman
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Colenso BBDO has had another stellar year, with a swag of awards—both for creativity and effectiveness— and a growing international reputation. Planning director James Hurman, who passionately believes that creatively focused leadership and creative advertising leads to business success, has played a big part in that. And here’s his take on 2010.