Update on Spark Sport streaming issue

22 September 2019, 09.50am

Update on Spark Sport streaming issue

Spark Sport has been working overnight with our international streaming partners to identify and resolve the root cause of the video stream quality issues that affected some customers during last night’s All Blacks vs South Africa pool match.

As previously advised, these quality issues, which meant that some customers experienced brief, intermittent periods of reduced video quality such as pixilation and buffering, prompted the decision to simulcast the second half of the match on TVNZ DUKE.

Our technical team believes the issue is within the international distribution network via which the video stream is passed from our streaming platform located in the USA, through to New Zealand broadband providers. The team are working to confirm this and put a fix in place.

At this time, it is too early to say whether the issue will be fully resolved in time for today’s matches. Unless we confident of this, then we will look to simulcast tonight’s matches on TVNZ DUKE to ensure New Zealanders have a good viewing experience.

We intend to make a decision on whether or not to simulcast by 1pm today, to ensure our customers have adequate time to prepare for today’s matches.

Spark CEO, Jolie Hodson said, “We are very disappointed that some New Zealanders did not get the experience they deserved last night during such an important match and we apologise to those who were affected. We are committed to giving New Zealanders a good viewing experience. Our immediate focus today is on getting things right for today’s matches and for the rest of the tournament.

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