Spark NZ Ends Four Years of Sports Streaming Disruption

In July 2021, Spark, a telecommunications company based in New Zealand, will be discontinuing its Spark Sports unit, which includes streaming sports content.

Spark, based in Auckland, stated in an NZX filing on Friday that the main reasons for their decision were the increasing costs of content rights and a wider range of investment opportunities across their business. They also announced a content partnering agreement with state-owned broadcaster TVNZ, which will become the primary source of Spark content from July 1, 2023.

After four years of changes in New Zealand sports broadcasting, Spark has come to a conclusion. Spark, similar to other phone companies such as the UK's BT Group, has been obtaining sports content in the hopes of increasing their broadband and mobile streaming services. This has caused a stir with the existing pay-television company Sky Network Television, as Spark won the rights to the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and then secured a six-year deal with New Zealand Cricket.

Jolie Hodson, Chief Executive Officer of Spark, commented that it has been difficult to reach the desired level of success with the Spark Sport platform due to the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic, which occurred only a year after its launch. She further noted that the slow start, combined with the increasing cost of content rights, makes it hard to justify the amount of investment needed for Spark Sport when there are other investment opportunities available in the company.

Spark announced that it will set aside NZ$52 million in the current fiscal year to fulfill its contractual obligations that will last until 2028. Its stock prices increased by 0.5% on the Wellington stock exchange on Friday.

Throughout its history, Spark has had the rights to the English Premier League, Formula-1, and a variety of other sports. Recently, Sky regained the Premier League rights and today they declared a multi-year contract to provide Formula 1 from the beginning of 2023.

Spark has announced that they have come to an agreement with New Zealand Cricket, which will allow them to broadcast and produce all men's and women's international and domestic T20 matches for a period of three years, beginning in the 2023-24 season.

NZ Cricket announced that a new deal will allow for more than 300 matches to be broadcast on free-to-air television. This decision had been met with criticism due to the potential effect on viewership.

David White, Chief Executive, expressed his pleasure with the result for cricket in New Zealand. He stated that New Zealanders can now enjoy free-to-air coverage of the sport, which is a major shift for the game in the country.