The Coliseum Media / Lightbox Press Release

Online TV service Lightbox and Coliseum Sports Media today announced a joint venture partnership to bring premium sport content to more New Zealanders.

The venture will be called Lightbox Sport and will include 100% of Coliseum Sports Media’s New Zealand content including Golf, English Premier League football, French TOP 14 rugby and all future New Zealand based projects

The combined viewership for these events alone is more than a billion worldwide, with Kiwi talent making its fair share of appearances. The French TOP 14 includes 21 ex-All Blacks and a further 15 New Zealanders, golfing superstar Lydia Ko plays in the LPGA Tour and Winston Reid is fast-becoming one of the best defenders in the English Premier League.

Lightbox CEO Kym Niblock says the partnership reinforces the vision for the future of Lightbox, by delivering more relevance and value to customers.

“This partnership looks to simplify the crowded online TV marketplace. By joining forces we will be giving customers a greater breadth and depth of choice and a more compelling viewing experience.

“Both Lightbox and Coliseum Sports Media already give Kiwis greater choice over how they watch TV online, and both have proven the ability to secure top quality content – but together, our combined buying power will make us an even more formidable force in the market,” says Niblock.

Coliseum Sports Media CEO Tim Martin says the partnership is about bringing sports to a wider audience.

“The reality is online sports viewing, and paying for the sport you want to watch, is rapidly becoming mainstream around the world. By pooling resources with Lightbox we want to make sport more accessible and more affordable for all.

“Lightbox delivers great TV online, and sport is a huge part of that.  This partnership will give Kiwis more freedom to watch the sports they want, when they want,” says Martin.

In the immediate future both Lightbox and CSM’s existing properties will continue to run as they do now.

Following the business venture announcement today the board and management team of Lightbox and Lightbox Sport will work on the business of building the best packages with the best price levels to deliver a mix of entertainment, including sport, that consumers will have control over.

“This is the start of an exciting journey for customers,” says Niblock.

“From day one we said we were going to add to our insanely good TV line-up and we are making good on that promise by offering customers more choice over the shows, and soon the sport, they watch at compelling value. We look forward to revealing more details on our progress in the future.”

The joint venture agreement is signed and comes into effect today, however it remains conditional on a number of legal matters.

To celebrate the partnership Lightbox Sport is offering free French TOP 14 rugby until the end of January. Visit www.top14pass.com and use the voucher code FRENCHTOP14 to start watching.