Spark Sport
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I see a lot of criticism of Spark picking up rugby and cricket because parts of NZ don't have good enough Internet speeds, but basically no criticism of the fact that those Internet speeds are a fucking embarrassment for a first world country. They're not good enough and we should be shouting that from the hilltops to get the investment to bloody well fix it. A positive of Spark trying to move NZ into the future is that it will create a strong drive to sort it out.
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@Bovidae said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@nzzp How people view sport will differ with each individual and their circumstances. Sometimes streaming has advantages, and sometimes not.
Not everyone has fibre and unlimited broadband. If you lived in some rural regions you don't have the option of watching Spark Sport, Netflix etc and they rely on satellite to watch FTA TV channels.
absolutely, but internet access is only going one way. Three years ago, data caps were the norm. In three years time, I'd expect there is decent cell broadband or better to most of the population - and that will keep improving.
At times I stream at a rural location, at the end of a private road, with speeds of about 4-5MB. It's OK not great - but beats the hell out of no sport.
I do get it, but people made the same argument when Sky came out - that some people woudln't be able to afford it, and sport would be limited by income. Now it's the benchmark baseline, and internet access is the determinant. I get that it's not perfect,
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@No-Quarter the irony is not lost with Telecom into Spark/Chorus being one of the main players in the 'development' of our infrastructure. Had they done a better job back in the day perhaps we'd have far fewer folks with average internet speed and quality.
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@Paekakboyz said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@No-Quarter the irony is not lost with Telecom into Spark/Chorus being one of the main players in the 'development' of our infrastructure. Had they done a better job back in the day perhaps we'd have far fewer folks with average internet speed and quality.
I don't get the hate on our broadband. Fibre is in most places, and going out fast.
also, check this out
Rural Broadband | National Infrastructure Funding and Financing | New Zealand
Explore the Rural Broadband programme, improving internet connectivity for rural NZ, bridging the urban-rural divide and supporting remote work and education.
Edit: I got interrupted.
In 2017, Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) assessed that 90,000 rural households and businesses cannot access broadband speeds of at least 20 Mbps download. The RBI2 programme aims to reduce this number as much as possible.So we're talking about 90,000 households and businesses who can't access fast-ish internet at the momehnt, and that's dropping. IN the context of 5M people in NZ, that's a pity for some, but it's not a train wreck. I reckon our internet infrastructure is usually exceptional, and not too bad overall
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@Machpants said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
Yeah NZ Is ranked 17th i the world, just behind USA in 15th. Better than France, Canada, Germany, Ireland, UK, and good old Oz in 50th
I have to question those ratings. There's no way Australia is that high.
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@antipodean said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@Machpants said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
Yeah NZ Is ranked 17th i the world, just behind USA in 15th. Better than France, Canada, Germany, Ireland, UK, and good old Oz in 50th
I have to question those ratings. There's no way Australia is that high.
it's from here
the issue usually isn't the average though, it's the slowest 10% that really struggle.
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@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I don't get the hate on our broadband.
That's because you have a decent service. I don't even have a sealed road so decent internet seems some time away. Mobile could be a speed solution but expensive, data caps, etc.
Yes, my fault for living in the sticks but I pay the same as everyone else for the substandard service.
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@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@antipodean said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@Machpants said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
Yeah NZ Is ranked 17th i the world, just behind USA in 15th. Better than France, Canada, Germany, Ireland, UK, and good old Oz in 50th
I have to question those ratings. There's no way Australia is that high.
it's from here
the issue usually isn't the average though, it's the slowest 10% that really struggle.
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Sky retains the cricket WC broadcasting rights
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@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@Paekakboyz said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I don't get the hate on our broadband. Fibre is in most places, and going out fast.
also, check this out
Rural Broadband | National Infrastructure Funding and Financing | New Zealand
Explore the Rural Broadband programme, improving internet connectivity for rural NZ, bridging the urban-rural divide and supporting remote work and education.
Edit: I got interrupted.
In 2017, Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) assessed that 90,000 rural households and businesses cannot access broadband speeds of at least 20 Mbps download. The RBI2 programme aims to reduce this number as much as possible.So we're talking about 90,000 households and businesses who can't access fast-ish internet at the momehnt, and that's dropping. IN the context of 5M people in NZ, that's a pity for some, but it's not a train wreck. I reckon our internet infrastructure is usually exceptional, and not too bad overall.
Yeah - I think nationally we're not doing badly with broadband compared to most other countries - far lower population density than most countries - probably making the cost of a national rollout higher per capita than most.
Interesting in this context though...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12275038
As of Wednesday, there had been over 186,000 Spark Sport subscriptions for the Rugby World Cup Tournament Pass.
Anecdotally, I suspect that there would be a significantly higher proportion of people in those 90K rural households that would have subscribed to RWC than in the broader population - if they could have. Most people I've talked to about it round here would have.
I read somewhere that Spark was thought to have paid $12 million for RWC rights (which seems cheap, but apparently double what Sky paid last time). So they'll presumably have broken approximately even. But 186K subscriptions nonetheless seems quite low to me - for what is probably NZ's premier sporting event.
And cricket is not rugby. As I recall, those guys who came in initially and took the EPL away from Sky with their Premier League Pass or something similar,didn't do well - like many pioneers, they probably perished on the trail. I wonder whether the major effect of domestic cricket going to Spark will be that many less people will watch cricket. To watch all the BCs games, you'll have to have two subscriptions - not a prohibitive issue for wealthy and ardent fans, but will casual fans switch to Spark and pay both? Or will they just cancel Sky and go to the beach?
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@Snowy said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I don't get the hate on our broadband.
That's because you have a decent service. I don't even have a sealed road so decent internet seems some time away. Mobile could be a speed solution but expensive, data caps, etc.
Yes, my fault for living in the sticks but I pay the same as everyone else for the substandard service.
I think it's more that our rural broadband isn't as shit as most places. @No-Quarter said we had basically no criticism of the fact that those Internet speeds are a fucking embarrassment for a first world country. I guess my point is that we're doing ok - 27th internationally - and that even those with slower speed (max 90,000 households) are getting something done.
Appreciate you've got shite internet at the moment, and that sucks, but based on what's in this thread you're in a small minority. So it sucks, yep, but I don't think it's enough suckage to trump some people coming in and innovating in a market dominated by a sunset player.
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@Snowy said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I don't get the hate on our broadband.
That's because you have a decent service. I don't even have a sealed road so decent internet seems some time away. Mobile could be a speed solution but expensive, data caps, etc.
Yes, my fault for living in the sticks but I pay the same as everyone else for the substandard service.
No surprises you live in an isolated spot with no near witnesses....... I mean neighbours
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@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I think it's more that our rural broadband isn't as shit as most places.
Probably not, but compared to what places? Here?
@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I don't think it's enough suckage to trump some people coming in and innovating in a market dominated by a sunset player.
I would agree if they weren't taking exclusive content that is only available through them, and yet they can't provide a service that can cope with it. They are an internet provider after all and they are actually my ISP at the rural property. So they are completely to blame.
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@Snowy said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I think it's more that our rural broadband isn't as shit as most places.
Probably not, but compared to what places? Here?
@nzzp said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
I don't think it's enough suckage to trump some people coming in and innovating in a market dominated by a sunset player.
I would agree if they weren't taking exclusive content that is only available through them, and yet they can't provide a service that can cope with it. They are an internet provider after all and they are actually my ISP at the rural property. So they are completely to blame.
have you looked at rural broadband via Vodafone? Not cheap, but more speed I expect.
depending on how rural, Skinny did mobile broadband for about $50 a month too; we had Spark for a while and got good speeds.
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@Snowy Again - me too. Spark/Telecom customer for 20 years - zero acknowledgement from them that they might have fucked the RWC for me. Let alone any discount for this fuckage - or on the price of the relatively substandard download speeds.
For all that they are trumpeting streaming as being the way of the future - they are taking me to the future via the 1970s when there were two and then three TV channels but only one was available to rural communities!
List of countries by Internet connection speeds - Wikipedia
