Lightbox was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

subscription video on demand (SVOD) service offering a selection of television shows over a range of devices. The service was owned by national telecommunications provider

Spark New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line plain old telephone service, telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet service provider, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digi ...

but was purchased by satellite company Sky Television in December 2019. On 7 July 2020, Sky merged Lightbox into its own streaming service Neon using the existing streaming platform of Lightbox. Hema Patel was the general manager director of Lightbox.

History

In June 2014, Spark announced Lightbox (then called ShowmeTV), which allowed New Zealanders to stream TV shows, including ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

Better Call Saul ''Better Call Saul'' is an American crime and legal drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Part of the ''Breaking Bad'' franchise, it is a spin-off of Gilligan's previous series, ''Breaking Bad'', and serves as a ...

and

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...

''. It was launched in August 2014. In January 2015, Lightbox partnered with Coliseum Sports Media to deliver a subscription-based sports streaming service called Lightbox Sport. Lightbox Sport included golf,

English Premier League football The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

and French Top 14 rugby. By March 2015, Lightbox faced competition from SVOD services Quickflix,

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

and Neon. In October 2019, a Horizon Research survey of more than 1,000 New Zealanders found that 18% of those surveyed subscribed to Lightbox. By contrast, 59% subscribed to

TVNZ OnDemand TVNZ+ ( mi, Te Reo Tātaki Ā-Tono), formerly known as TVNZ OnDemand, is an online New Zealand television and video on demand streaming service offered by TVNZ. It offers a variety of free content, such as news updates and programmes seen on TVN ...

, 56% to Netflix, 29% to

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

, and 7% to Neon. In mid-December 2019, it was announced that Spark would be selling the Lightbox streaming service to the satellite television company Sky Television. Sky planned to merge Lightbox into its own online streaming service Neon on 7 July 2020. Spark also partnered with Sky to make the service available to Spark customers through the telecommunication company's entertainment offers during the first half of 2020. As part of the agreement, Sky met the operational costs of merging the two streaming services. In mid-June 2020, Sky announced that Lightbox would be merged into Neon on 7 July 2020. The merged service retained the Neon brand but continued using Lightbox's interface and features and includes content drawn from both Neon and the old Lightbox. Existing Spark customers can receive a NZ$9.95 discount. On 7 July, Sky formally merged Neon and Lightbox, with the former Lightbox app being revamped as Neon. The revamped Neon platform incorporates content and several features from Lightbox including the ability to download films and shows onto devices, rent movies, and create user profiles.

Services and content

Lightbox was available via their website on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

and OS X computers, and on a number of other devices including

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, Android (version 4.2 and above), Apple TV using

AirPlay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

Android TV Android TV is a smart TV operating system based on Android (operating system), Android and developed by Google for television sets, digital media players, set-top boxes, and soundbars. A successor to Google TV (operating system), Google TV, it fe ...

, Chromecast selected

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techn ...

s, and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

and PlayStation 4 consoles. Lightbox's content included the New Zealand animated comedy series

Bro'Town ''bro'Town'' is a New Zealand adult animated comedy television series and sitcom that ran from 2004 to 2009. It starred David Fane, Mario Gaoa, Shimpal Lelisi and Oscar Kightley. Overview The main characters in the series are five 14 yea ...

and the Hulu webseries ''

The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which ...

''.

References

External links

lightbox.co.nz
{{Authority control 2020 disestablishments in New Zealand Companies based in Auckland New Zealand subscription television services PlayStation 4 software Telecommunications companies of New Zealand Video on demand services Defunct video on demand services New Zealand companies established in 2014 Telecommunications companies established in 2014 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2020 Internet properties established in 2014 Internet properties disestablished in 2020