SKT - Sky Network Television

[Hectorplains]

"Sky TV axes 170 local staff as roles sent offshore, says move will improve support."  Out sourcing to the Philippines.  They'll have more support staff, at $6m pa less cost.  Sounds almost too good to be true! It also implies that they're expecting a heap of problems with the new hardware roll out.  Luckily,Sky customers have been well trained not to have a high bar for customer service.

[Teitei]

"Sky TV axes 170 local staff as roles sent offshore, says move will improve support."  Out sourcing to the Philippines.  They'll have more support staff, at $6m pa less cost.  Sounds almost too good to be true! It also implies that they're expecting a heap of problems with the new hardware roll out.  Luckily,Sky customers have been well trained not to have a high bar for customer service.

The average employee in Philippines & India gets paid less than 1/3rd of what a NZ employee has to be paid.

No brainer.

[Perky]

Can anyone name a nz organisation that has moved its customer service function offshore and actually improved the customer experience?

I've seen this movie before... it goes something like this.

Sky Phillipines. Hello it's Agness at skytv here how can I help you today
Sky customer. The bloody nrl is on the blink...it's not working

Sky Phillipines. Sorry sir...you say the National rail line is broken?

Sky customer. No the nrl..can't see the warriors getting whipped.

Sky Phillipines. I'm sorry sir..I need to talk to my supervisor
Sky customer. (Insert elevator music of your choice)

[LoungeLizard]

Can anyone name a nz organisation that has moved its customer service function offshore and actually improved the customer experience?

I've seen this movie before... it goes something like this.

Sky Phillipines. Hello it's Agness at skytv here how can I help you today
Sky customer. The bloody nrl is on the blink...it's not working

Sky Phillipines. Sorry sir...you say the National rail line is broken?

Sky customer. No the nrl..can't see the warriors getting whipped.

Sky Phillipines. I'm sorry sir..I need to talk to my supervisor
Sky customer. (Insert elevator music of your choice)

Bit harsh. It is, after all, the pressure on corporations to deliver increasing revenue and returns to shareholder that is to a large extent driving the outsourcing of call centres. That and the increasing living wage and wage-price spiral most of the western world is on.
If you believe SKYS rationale - big if - they need more bums on seats to handle what are, quite often, fairly straightforward problems and solutions (have you tried switching the SKYBOX off and on, sir?). They will still have a call centre in NZ that will deal with the more difficult issues, which is what most corporations (eg. Vodafone ) have. SKY have to continue to strip costs from the organisation in order to survive and this is one fairly established way of doing so.
BTW, still waiting for an announcement on the share-buyback schedule. Nothing seems to happen fast at SKY. Might have something to do with the Board being scattered around the globe. Maybe they should establish a cut-price Board in the Phillipines and save themselves a few million right there?

[Perky]

Your right...I apologise to the warriors fans. They haven't had any whippings this season...it was a bit harsh.

So now sky are splitting their customer service to simple enquires in Phillipines and difficult enquires in nz.

So now they need a way to triage the call to the right place as they have no idea what your calling about till your call.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Ferg]

We all know Sky dodged a bullet not getting together with MediaWorks but do we know how much of a bullet?

Recent events:
 1) today's announcement of shutting down Today FM
 2) Tova O'Brien throwing her toys out of the cot live on air (oh so professional)
 3) recent senior executive departures
 4) other upcoming job losses
 5) recent Board resignation(s?)

It makes you wonder how bad things really are at MediaWorks...

Will long suffering shareholders continue supporting an organisation with a toxic culture?  Or will they flick it and cut their losses?  Or, will it go into some sort of administration?  Place your bets....

[mistaTea]

We all know Sky dodged a bullet not getting together with MediaWorks but do we know how much of a bullet?

Recent events:
 1) today's announcement of shutting down Today FM
 2) Tova O'Brien throwing her toys out of the cot live on air (oh so professional)
 3) recent senior executive departures
 4) other upcoming job losses
 5) recent Board resignation(s?)

It makes you wonder how bad things really are at MediaWorks...

Will long suffering shareholders continue supporting an organisation with a toxic culture?  Or will they flick it and cut their losses?  Or, will it go into some sort of administration?  Place your bets....

You wash your mouth out with soap.

Sophie looked me in the eye and told me MW was a great idea, it's just the 'timing' wasn't quite right...that's why shareholders were anti.

On reflection I do agree with her now - because any time other than never would not do at all!

AHHH HUHUHUHUHUHUHU!

[Buzz]

You wash your mouth out with soap.

Sophie looked me in the eye and told me MW was a great idea, it's just the 'timing' wasn't quite right...that's why shareholders were anti.

On reflection I do agree with her now - because any time other than never would not do at all!

AHHH HUHUHUHUHUHUHU!

On reflection? Pull the other one!

In June you were very vocal that buying MW was not a good idea (many agreed), but it took until September before you sold out, all the while you were otherwise ramping it to heaven as you had done for years while you were massively underwater and it was still a SP basket case with little evidence the turnaround strategy was working (maybe to get a decent sell price?, who knows, you had plenty of 'followers' that you let down).

That was well after SKT had abandoned the idea of buying MW and reverted to common sense, continuing the transformation strategy, reinstating dividends and considering a share buy-back.

Can you explain why Sophie would give you a personal audience, or did you have an inside route to that?

This post is after you exited 90%+ of your shares (quite a few hundred thousand $ if we can believe you), before you sold your last remaining small percentage of shares a short time later, it's interesting to read your posts in the three months after them abandoning the MW acquisition and your decision to exit SKT completely. https://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4216-SKT-Sky-Network-Television-Limited&p=974846&viewfull=1#post974846

Credibility? No, not much. Insider?, yeah probably.

[Plata]

I'm sure I don't know the full story that is mistaTea and S K T but what I do know is the share price rose considerably over the time I followed the great ramping saga, and for most of that time I agreed there was good value. The thing is, with a business that isn't really growing like sky, as the share price rises the value on offer becomes worse. I don't think it is that surprising that mistaTea sold once the price approached their idea of fair value, nor is it surprising that they didn't announce their intention BEFORE selling. Why let a bunch of random internet people front run your selling?

[mistaTea]

On reflection? Pull the other one!

In June you were very vocal that buying MW was not a good idea (many agreed), but it took until September before you sold out, all the while you were otherwise ramping it to heaven as you had done for years while you were massively underwater and it was still a SP basket case with little evidence the turnaround strategy was working (maybe to get a decent sell price?, who knows, you had plenty of 'followers' that you let down).

That was well after SKT had abandoned the idea of buying MW and reverted to common sense, continuing the transformation strategy, reinstating dividends and considering a share buy-back.

Can you explain why Sophie would give you a personal audience, or did you have an inside route to that?

This post is after you exited 90%+ of your shares (quite a few hundred thousand $ if we can believe you), before you sold your last remaining small percentage of shares a short time later, it's interesting to read your posts in the three months after them abandoning the MW acquisition and your decision to exit SKT completely. https://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4216-SKT-Sky-Network-Television-Limited&p=974846&viewfull=1#post974846

Credibility? No, not much. Insider?, yeah probably.

Not this again.

You can believe or not believe that I have talked to current and past CEO's of Sky. Your personal belief on the matter is irrelevant.

But be very very careful about making insider allegations. That is a very serious thing to accuse someone of.

I am not an insider, have never been an insider and nobody at sky has ever given me any information that would qualify as such.

All conversations with current and past CEO's have not gone into anything that was not public information.

In fact, given Sophie was so new to the role (and has never been a CEO before) she had someone from the investment services company they use sit in on the teams call we had to make double sure she didn't accidentally say anything she is not allowed to.

You may not like how my views on sky evolved over time, and that is ok.

But just be careful when you are furiously banging out responses to tell someone what for that you don't take it too far.

[Teitei]

Chill guys.

SKT's sp has performed very well over the last two years and imo, will continue to outperform the market as it is a very cheap stock by most measures.

SKT's shareholders did have a fortunate escape from the company's misguided attempt to acquire MW (it wasn't a done deal as it was subjected to further due diligence) thanks to the efforts of the shareholders who took the management & directors to task.

The company is now focused on its core activities, doing well and generating plenty of cashflow to reward shareholders with dividends & share buybacks as well as invest in its underlying business.

Those who believe will invest in the story.  Those who don't will rail against any and every thing the company does.

It helps of course to know the motivation behind the postings of certain characters on this thread!

That's the beauty of a listed stock surely!

[winner (n)]

Buy back to begin next week

Buybacks are great aren't they?

[Buzz]

Buy back to begin next week

Buybacks are great aren't they?

"As outlined at Sky's 2022 Annual Meeting and reiterated at the time of the company's Interim Results announcement, the Board believes that Sky's shares are significantly under-priced, and are yet to reflect the company's improved results and outlook. As such, buying back shares represents an attractive investment opportunity."

"Sky's balance sheet remains strong with a positive cash balance and demonstrated earnings momentum. This buyback follows the decisive action already taken and reflects the Board's confidence in Sky's future outlook - including the return of $70 million to Sky shareholders in November 2022, raising the dividend payout ratio to between 60% to 90% of free cash flow and providing updated FY23 dividend guidance of between $20 to $23 million."

With this in mind, the Board is initiating a $15 million on-market buyback programme. Assuming the full capacity of the buyback is utilised, at the 29 March share price of $2.55, it would be expected to deliver a 3.4% uplift in Earnings Per Share".

[Teitei]

Big vote of confidence by Chairman :

http://nzx-prod-s7fsd7f98s.s3-website-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/SKT/409577/392203.pdf

He sure as well is not selling into the buyback!

[Mysterion]

-Pooman buys "Lotto Strike" jackpot amount of shares!

-Transaction, merger and acquisition specialist Andrew Hurst back as CFO!