Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Sky's purchase of TV3 is good for everyone

The big news of the day is another $1 deal in the media, which probably tells you everything you need to know about the state of the industry. But this is, on balance, good news for everyone - I would have thought. It's good for you, for viewers, good for Sky, and good for Three. And I'm gonna work backwards on that - Let's start with TV3. It's good news for Three and for the people who work there, because Three continues to exist. A very real alternative must have been for Warner Brothers Discovery, the owners, to shut Three down completely. Now that they've sold it for $1 to Sky, it continues. It's good news for Sky, because it gives Sky TV a chance to make money again off stuff that they already own. For example, and I'm just picking this randomly, let's say White Lotus. Sky TV buys the broadcast rights for the country to White Lotus, they earn the money off White Lotus by sticking it on Sky TV, sticking it on Neon, and we pay a subscription to watch it. Now, they can wait a few months, maybe until all of us who've paid for it have watched it, and then they can dump White Lotus for free on TV3 and Freeview - which is TV3's app - and then they can make money off White Lotus all over again through advertising around the free content. Now, they can already do this with their Sky Open channel, which is a free-to-air channel they already have, but who even knows where on the TV Sky Open is? I have no bloody idea what number it is. Never even watched it before in my life. And does it have an app? Wouldn't know. I know everything you need to know about TV3, I've got the TV3 app, I know where to find it. There is a very strong brand attached to Three. More importantly, I would have thought for Sky TV - this strengthens its arm for sports, right? Sky TV has now got to be the only real choice in town for sports content. Beforehand at least domestically, TVNZ was a real competitor, at least for the free-to-air portion, given so many people watch TVNZ - both its on-air channels and its app. But now, Sky TV's got Three - same same. It doesn't need to have anything to do with TVNZ. Finally, it's good for you and me that this deal was struck today, because who doesn't want excellent free content landing on an app that you already have or a TV channel that you already watch? So good day all round, I would say. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.