Spark Sport
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As expected the uptake of Spark Sport hasn't been what they hoped for.
I have only signed up for the RWC package and their other sports don't interest me enough to pay a monthly subscription.
Spark's sports strategy becomes clearer
Spark Sport outbid SKY TV for the rights for the RWC, but its payoff seems to depend on what happens after the event is finished, writes Mark Jennings.
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This is a massive risk from Spark. I'm far from convinced NZ is ready for the WC to be streamed. My last place couldn't even get VDSL and we really struggled to stream anything, and that was fairly central in Auckland. There will be plenty of NZers who will struggle, and that's not even mentioning whether Sparks infrastructure will handle the load as expected.
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I'm cutting off my nose to spite my face with this.
I flat out am refusing to purchase the RWC. True-Love is a little surprised with my stubbornness but it looks as though I will be watching televised replays and just the semis and final (which I believe will be on the telly?)
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@Bovidae said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@Hooroo TVNZ will have the AB games on a 1 h delay so for a lot of people that won't be a big issue. I expect regular ads though.
I'm fine with that in this instance of stubbornness. I will delay another 30 mins and record and watch
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@No-Quarter said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
This is a massive risk from Spark. I'm far from convinced NZ is ready for the WC to be streamed. My last place couldn't even get VDSL and we really struggled to stream anything, and that was fairly central in Auckland. There will be plenty of NZers who will struggle, and that's not even mentioning whether Sparks infrastructure will handle the load as expected.
Nearly all my mates in NZ have much better internet than me in Oz and I thought the UFB roll out was progressing fine over there - is it a mental thing against streaming do you think or is the infrastructure not up to the task?
It took me a while to wrap my head around it with my Kayo subscription and I hit the roof still if my wifi cuts out - and I increased my phone data just in case things go pear shaped.
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@Nepia said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
Nearly all my mates in NZ have much better internet than me in Oz and I thought the UFB roll out was progressing fine over there - is it a mental thing against streaming do you think or is the infrastructure not up to the task?
A lot of the rural areas don't have UFB, or even reliable fibre, so streaming won't be an option.
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I'm rural and my VDSL is 50/20, so it really comes down to the luck of the draw. Not as reliable as terrestrial or sky, but I've had both those cut out at inopportune times. I think if you can take the possibility of little pauses, you're OK. Actual failures in streaming for me have been no more often than sky 'atmospheric' crap.
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Yeah as above there's still a significant number of people that don't yet have UFB. I do now, and streaming is much more reliable so from that POV I will be OK, but a lot won't.
I also have concerns over whether Sparks servers will handle the load especially during the big games. I'm sure they've done capacity planning/testing but it's not always easy to predict how the systems will perform on the day, and obviously any issue at all that causes a delay in the stream will be a massive deal. There will be some pretty nervous Spark technicians and execs on the day...
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@No-Quarter said in [And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...]
I also have concerns over whether Sparks servers will handle the load especially during the big games. I'm sure they've done capacity planning/testing but it's not always easy to predict how the systems will perform on the day, and obviously any issue at all that causes a delay in the stream will be a massive deal. There will be some pretty nervous Spark technicians and execs on the day...
I would assume they aren't using their own servers?
The live pictures and commentary will come down from Japan by fibre and satellite to TVNZ in Auckland (TVNZ is handling all the production for Spark), then up to the West Coast of the USA to be turned into a 'stream' before being sent back to New Zealand.
Surely that step to the USA is about renting capacity from an Amazon or a Google server farm? Then they can increase capacity pretty quickly to match the demand
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@Duluth said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@No-Quarter said in [And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...]
I also have concerns over whether Sparks servers will handle the load especially during the big games. I'm sure they've done capacity planning/testing but it's not always easy to predict how the systems will perform on the day, and obviously any issue at all that causes a delay in the stream will be a massive deal. There will be some pretty nervous Spark technicians and execs on the day...
I would assume they aren't using their own servers?
The live pictures and commentary will come down from Japan by fibre and satellite to TVNZ in Auckland (TVNZ is handling all the production for Spark), then up to the West Coast of the USA to be turned into a 'stream' before being sent back to New Zealand.
Surely that step to the USA is about renting capacity from an Amazon or a Google server farm? Then they can increase capacity pretty quickly to match the demand
I was wondering why the US step, that would explain it. In the context of the big cloud providers, serving a stream to NZ (even if everyone in the country is watching) would be small fry.
I wonder if spark have plans to invest in local server capacity if spark sport goes well.
