Consumer Terms - Sky
Effective 7 October 2022
- Introduction: Welcome to Sky! These terms form a contract between us and anyone that purchases or subscribes to Sky's consumer services, including TV, broadband and/or voice (but not including Neon or Sky Sport Now). Please read them carefully.
- Eligibility: To subscribe to any Service, you need to be at least 18, and located in New Zealand.
- Our Services: Sky offers a range of Services to consumer customers, and (subject to any minimum term you agree to), you can upgrade and downgrade and add extra Services, from time to time. When you subscribe to a Service, we will tell you about the charges (which you must pay), and any extra terms that apply on top of these terms (which you must comply with). You can find additional information about our Digital Content Terms here.
- Third party service providers: We may have arrangements with third parties to provide or promote our Services (e.g. resellers, promotional partners and internet/mobile service providers) (Third Party Suppliers). Where a Third Party Supplier is involved in promoting or providing your Services, different or additional terms might apply, and the charges for your Services might be different. Please ask your Third Party Supplier for more details. We may pay our Third Party Suppliers a commission in relation to their provision or promotion of our Services, and we are not responsible for any products or services that you purchase from the Third Party Supplier.
- Charges and payment: You must pay us the charges for each of your Services on the due date. There are also extra charges for non-standard installations, dishonoured direct debit/credit payments or reconnection charges, charges if you fail to return our Equipment, charges if our equipment is lost or damaged, and late payment charges. Please see here for a list of charges that may apply. All monthly charges are due in advance, and one-off charges are due on your next invoice due date. You must also pay any reasonable costs we incur in collecting late payments. At Sky, our standard billing period is a calendar month unless we agree a different period with you. If the Equipment lets you access third party services or content (e.g other apps or services), additional third-party charges may apply (e.g your monthly streaming subscription charge with a third party).
- Changes: To ensure we can respond to the needs of our customers by continually improving our Services, we may make changes to our Services, packages, content, charges, technology, technical requirements and usage rules, and these terms, from time to time. We might also cancel or phase out certain Services.
We will give you advance notice of:
a. any changes to the terms that apply to you;
b. any increase to your ongoing monthly charges (we will give at least 30 days' notice of this); and
c. any major change we make to your Services, where we think the change may have a negative impact on a significant portion of affected customers (we will try to give at least 30 days' notice of this, where practicable) (Major Negative Change).
We may not give notice of changes that happen in the ordinary course of things, such as changes to our content (which happens all the time as our rights, scheduling, and customers interests change), or changes that we think will have a neutral or positive impact on affected customers.
- Notice: Where we notify you of changes, we may do so by emailing you, sending you a notice in the post and/or publishing the change on the Sky website. If you are unhappy with any change we have made, you may choose to cancel on notice, as described in clause 14.
- Content and intellectual property: All intellectual property and other rights in our Services, and any content included in those Services, are owned by us or our licensors. Provided that you comply with these terms and other applicable laws, we grant you a limited licence to use the Services that you purchase (in the manner that those Services are provided to you), and to view the content on those Services, in New Zealand, for your own personal non-commercial purposes in your home (and outside your home, to the extent your Services allow this). We do not grant you any other licence. You must not, and you must not attempt or assist, authorise, enable or permit anyone else, to:
a. access any of our Services or content without permission;
b. copy, adapt, play or show in public, or communicate to the public, any of our Services or content (including by showing any content in a pub, venue or accommodation facility);
c. otherwise redistribute, resupply, retransmit, reverse-engineer, decode, decompile, reformat or interfere with our Services or content; or
d. remove, circumvent, or interfere with any of the copyright notices or attributions, content protection, rights management, encryption or security technologies used for our Services or content.
- Your general responsibilities: You must:
a. follow our reasonable instructions and directions about using the Services, and only use the Services for lawful purposes;
b. not interfere with our or anyone else's IT or communications systems, or use of the Services; and
c. comply with all applicable laws and not breach our or anyone else's rights.
- Your account, and letting other people use it: You must keep your Sky account secure, for example by keeping your username and account passwords private. If you think someone has had access to your account without permission, please contact us straight away. It is OK to let other people that live with you use your account, but nobody else. Whenever someone other than you uses your account or your Services, you must:
a. pay any charges that apply, regardless of who incurs the charges; and
b. make sure they comply with the law and these terms.
- Classifications: Some of the content on our Services is age-restricted, or not suitable for children. You must review all classification information we provide in relation to the content on the Services and supervise the viewers of that content. This includes making sure that children and young people using the Services only view age-appropriate content. We make filtering technology available on many of our Services, and where it is provided, you must use that technology appropriately.
- Equipment and installation: If we sell you the Equipment, then you will usually need to install it and set it up yourself, and we do not offer any specific warranties with the Equipment (although we will meet our obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and pass on any manufacturer's warranty that comes with the Equipment). If you sign up to a Service that includes Equipment, then we will deliver that Equipment to the address you give us within a reasonable time. We will continue to own all Equipment (including as applicable any satellite decoder, smart card, router and/or antenna system, Sky Box or Sky Pod). This means that you do not buy the Equipment and will not own it. In relation to the Equipment:
a. where that equipment requires professional installation, we will arrange for an installer to install the Equipment;
b. any consents or approvals (e.g. from your local authority or your landlord) that are needed to install and use the Equipment are your responsibility;
c. you must keep the Equipment safely under your control (and not part with it), not damage it, modify it or move it without our permission;
d. you must give the Equipment back to us when your subscription for the relevant Service ends (or as otherwise directed by us);
e. you must follow our reasonable instructions in relation to the Equipment, and only use it for the purpose of accessing the Services;
f. we are responsible for maintaining the Equipment in good working order, but you are responsible for any other loss of or damage to it. You should tell us straight away if there are any issues with the Equipment;
g. we can replace the Equipment (or any parts of it) at any time, and you must cooperate with us if we ask to replace it. We communicate with some Equipment remotely sometimes, e.g. to download updates or retrieve information from it;
h. if the Equipment lets you access third party services or content (e.g. other apps or services), then your access to those services or content will be subject to the third party's terms. We are not responsible for those third party services and don't make any promises about them (e.g. that those services will always be available, or supported on the Equipment); and
i. you must give us reasonable access to the Equipment to install, maintain and replace it, or to repossess it (when your contract with us ends, and/or where we have reasonable grounds to believe that the Equipment is being used contrary to these terms).
- Starting and ending your Sky subscription: Your contract with us starts when you subscribe to a Service, and continues until either of us cancels this contract, as set out below in clauses 14-15.
- Cancelling on notice: Either of us can cancel this contract or your subscription to one or more Services at any time on at least one month's notice. [Updated from “28 day’s” to “one month’s” on 25/03/21]
- We may cancel or suspend: We may also immediately cancel this contract, or immediately suspend your account or access to any Service (without limiting our other rights) if:
a. it is reasonably necessary for operational, technical or security reasons;
b. we have reasonable grounds to believe that you are in breach of these terms or your account is being used fraudulently or to break the law; or
c. you do not pay applicable charges by the due date.
If we suspend your account or access to a Service, we might only agree to reactivate it on special conditions (e.g. we might require you to pay a bond).
- Early termination charges: If you cancel this contract or a Service during a minimum term that applies to that Service, we may require you to pay an early termination charge. You can find details of the early termination charges on the Sky's website here. We will not charge you an early termination charge if:
a. you cancel following a Major Negative Change (as described in clause 6(c) (changes)); or
b. we cancel under clause 14 (cancelling on notice) or 15 (we may cancel or suspend).
- After cancellation: When this contract is cancelled, you will no longer have access to your Services (although we may allow you to continue to access and use your online account provided you continue to comply with the applicable terms, e.g. in case you wish to subscribe again in the future). You must also return any Equipment to us and if you don’t do so within a reasonable time, or as otherwise directed by us when you sign up for the Service, we may require you to pay a charge (see here for list of charges), or visit your address on reasonable notice to collect the Equipment. Any rights or obligations (e.g. to pay any charges) that existed before cancellation continue after cancellation, and clauses 8, 9, 10, 12, and 16-24 will continue to apply. Please note that after you cancel this contract, we will keep your account open, but in an inactive state (in case you want to subscribe again in the future).
- Service limitations: We try to make sure that our Services are reliable and give a great user experience. But we cannot promise that they will always be available or completely error free, especially because we rely on satellites, the internet, and other third party networks and services. If you notice a fault with a Service, please let us know and we will try to fix it. But please be aware that:
a. the performance of the Services may depend on what kind of device and connection you have, and what else is running on your device at the time;
b. Services provided by satellite are affected by weather and atmospheric conditions;
c. we have regular maintenance windows where some Services may not be available. We try to schedule these for low-demand times;
d. although we use industry standard security tools, telecommunications services and the internet are never completely secure and we don't guarantee security; and
e. some Services, or some features and functionality of our Services, may not be available if you subscribe to the Service via a Third Party Supplier.
- Events outside our control: If an event that is beyond our reasonable control (e.g. an earthquake, internet outage or satellite failure) stops us from providing the Services or otherwise performing our obligations to you, we will not be liable for that non-performance. However, we will:
a. do our best to keep you informed about what has happened and how long we expect the event (and its impact) to last; and
b. take reasonable steps to keep performing where we reasonably can.
- Liability of Service Providers: Where we use service or infrastructure providers, and/or network operators to provide the Services, neither they nor their employees and directors (Service Providers) have any liability to you in relation to the services that they provide to us. You agree that this clause creates a benefit for the Service Providers that is enforceable by them under the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.
- Mutual liability cap: Nothing in these terms affects your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986. Except for liability under those Acts (and any other liability that cannot be limited by law), if you are liable to us or we are liable to you in connection with these terms or our contract for any reason, neither of us will have to pay the other more than:
a. $5,000 for any event or series of related events; or
b. $10,000 for all events in a 12-month period.
This liability cap will not apply to:
a. either of our fraud, intentional breach or intentional damage; or
b. breach of clause 8 (content and intellectual property), intellectual property infringement, or criminal activity by you or someone else using your account.
- Privacy: We collect information about you (which may relate to you and/or other members of your household) and the activity on your account (including how our Services are used). More information about what we collect, what we do with it, and your rights, can be found in our Privacy Policy here on the Sky website.
- Emails and texts: Where you consent to receiving marketing messages from us, we may send those messages to any email address and mobile phone number associated with your account. We will always let you opt out of receiving e-marketing from us. However, we do operate separate databases for some of our stand-alone services, so if you want to stop receiving marketing messages from us altogether, you might need to opt out more than once.
- General:
a. In these terms, a requirement to give notice can be met by leaving the notice at, or sending it by post or email to, the addressee's last known address (e.g. the latest address that we have for you in our systems). You should tell us about any change to your contact details, so that we can still keep in touch with you after the change.
b. We may at any time assign your account, the Services or this contract to a third party, so long as this does not materially affect your rights. You must not assign or otherwise transfer your rights or obligations under this contract without our prior written consent.
c. If any part of these terms is held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal, then the rest of these terms will continue in full force and effect.
d. If our contract ends for any reason, it does not affect any rights and responsibilities that are intended to continue or come into force afterwards.
- Definitions: In these terms:
Sky, we, us means Sky Network Television Limited, of 10 Panorama Road, Mt Wellington, Auckland.
you means the person that is the Sky account holder.
Equipment means any special equipment provided by us in order for you to access our Services, such as satellite decoder, smart card, router and/or antenna system, Sky Box or Sky Pod.
Service means any consumer product, app or service that we offer (and as may change from time to time), including TV, broadband and/or voice, (but not including Neon or Sky Sport Now). your Services are any Services that you use, or that are activated on your account.
including and similar words do not imply any limitation.