Spark Sport
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@mariner4life said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
will this end up like for the Soccer world cup in Aus where Optus' streaming service completely collapsed, and the entire thing ended up being delivered free-to-air by SBS?
Did Optus try to handle the streaming by themselves?
I believe Spark is using the same stream provider as Hulu & NBC Sports etc
@Duluth said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
@mariner4life said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
will this end up like for the Soccer world cup in Aus where Optus' streaming service completely collapsed, and the entire thing ended up being delivered free-to-air by SBS?
Did Optus try to handle the streaming by themselves?
I believe Spark is using the same stream provider as Hulu & NBC Sports etc
they have their own streaming service, they carry all the Premier League and Champs League in Australia. But the demand for the world cup crashed them
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@Duluth said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
@mariner4life said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
will this end up like for the Soccer world cup in Aus where Optus' streaming service completely collapsed, and the entire thing ended up being delivered free-to-air by SBS?
Did Optus try to handle the streaming by themselves?
I believe Spark is using the same stream provider as Hulu & NBC Sports etc
they have their own streaming service, they carry all the Premier League and Champs League in Australia. But the demand for the world cup crashed them
Yeah, I'm guessing they tried to provide the streaming capacity themselves rather than farm it out.
Spark is not doing that. They are sending the signal to the US and a streaming company (istreamplanet) over there is handling the capacity
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Day 2 (Saturday) of the world cup is gong to be massive.
3 crunch pool games one after the other.
Australia v Fiji at 16:45 (the not-quite pool of death, potential ripper)
France v Argentina at 19:15
NZ v South Africa at 21:45Then on Sunday, there is
Ireland v Scotland at 19:45
and potential banana skin in the actual pool of death England v Tonga at 22:15Tournament starts off with a bang.
If you wait to see how it pans out with the streaming, you'll be missing out.
BTW, I do not work for Spark ..... just genuinely excited by the pool stages, RWC has now reached that point.
@Rapido said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
Day 2 (Saturday) of the world cup is gong to be massive.
3 crunch pool games one after the other.
Australia v Fiji at 16:45 (the not-quite pool of death, potential ripper)
France v Argentina at 19:15
NZ v South Africa at 21:45Then on Sunday, there is
Ireland v Scotland at 19:45
and potential banana skin in the actual pool of death England v Tonga at 22:15Tournament starts off with a bang.
If you wait to see how it pans out with the streaming, you'll be missing out.
BTW, I do not work for Spark ..... just genuinely excited by the pool stages, RWC has now reached that point.
Oh hell yeah, I’m genuinely excited for this WC, there’s going to be so many big games to enjoy without the stress that an AB game brings with it. Also it’s so cool that it’s in Japan, will really add to the occasion.
Like many I was a bit taken aback when I found out it not only wasn’t going to be on Sky, but it was going to be streamed through as app. But at the end of the day I’m going to watch by any means possible, it’s going to be a cracker.
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Kind of related, I have Kayo sport here in Oz and after some initial teething problems have come round to really liking it.
But, I have an older chromcast so I have only been watching in 720p and it seemed ok, but the last couple of matches I've watched at my mates place and he has a projector and Apple TV (so 1080p) and the picture is awesome even wall sized. Now I can't bloody watch the 720p version anymore so I'll have to buy an Apple TV or new Chromecast - as they've been promising a PS4 app that's never going to happen.
First world problems! Although, I guess I'm lucky in that I live in Oz and am one fo the few to have decent internet (although I did have a year of hell with a lying snivelling piece of tutae Telstra subsidiary).
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Spark Sport's handling of their streaming service and lack of customer service in response to a number of problems has been a big own goal so far. The original Stuff article about HDMI cables was another example of that.
But at least they have listened to the vocal criticism of their decision to reduce the framerate from 50/60fps to 25/30fps.
Spark Sport recently changed our framerate per second from 50/60fps to 25/30fps.
This decision was taken to ensure accessibility on a wider variety of devices.
But we’ve heard the feedback from customers loud and clear that New Zealanders don’t think the quality right now is up to scratch – and we agree.
We will therefore be changing back to a framerate per second of 50/60fps that will see a significant improvement in quality. Unfortunately, it won’t be in time for this weekend’s Premier League matches, but it’s coming very soon.I might watch some of the archive RWC footage again.
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Spark Sport's handling of their streaming service and lack of customer service in response to a number of problems has been a big own goal so far. The original Stuff article about HDMI cables was another example of that.
But at least they have listened to the vocal criticism of their decision to reduce the framerate from 50/60fps to 25/30fps.
Spark Sport recently changed our framerate per second from 50/60fps to 25/30fps.
This decision was taken to ensure accessibility on a wider variety of devices.
But we’ve heard the feedback from customers loud and clear that New Zealanders don’t think the quality right now is up to scratch – and we agree.
We will therefore be changing back to a framerate per second of 50/60fps that will see a significant improvement in quality. Unfortunately, it won’t be in time for this weekend’s Premier League matches, but it’s coming very soon.I might watch some of the archive RWC footage again.
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Bloody annoying that in Ozzie they're getting the RWC in 4k. Are we getting 1080 or 720?
@Machpants I'd much rather get high frame rate than 4k, but I can imagine that NZ will get neither.
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@Bovidae Are the games going to be recorded at 50fps? That would be awesome.
Or is it just Premier League?
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@Nepia Your laptop might have video image "enhancements" on by default in the video card driver. They make everything look like blurry, ghosty shit.
@Tim said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@Nepia Your laptop might have video image "enhancements" on by default in the video card driver. They make everything look like blurry, ghosty shit.
My laptop is fine with any other streaming and TBH it's probably not as bad as I was making out ... either way I think I'll grab an Apple TV tomorrow.
@Unite said in And the winner of the RWC broadcasting rights is...:
@Nepia I have Fox here in Aus but really only use if for sport so have been thinking about ditching it and moving to Kayo. One reason I haven’t is Fox are having a dedicated 4K channel for the RWC which sounds pretty good, all games will be in 4K.
I thought Kayo supported 4K but I guess it doesn't? I switched to Kayo for the same reason as you - I only used Fox to watch sport (have Netflix and Stan for other stuff). All 3 are still much cheaper per month than what I used to pay for Fox (and the odd one or two might be shared
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Bought the early bird. Excited for the commentary team as Marshy won't be there. Excited for the RWC in general. Hate the business practices of Sky so stoked they don't have it. Though I do wish it would just be free to air anyway but unfortunately that's not how business works.
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Bloody annoying that in Ozzie they're getting the RWC in 4k. Are we getting 1080 or 720?
@Machpants said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
Bloody annoying that in Ozzie they're getting the RWC in 4k. Are we getting 1080 or 720?
#firstworldproblems
Here, I'll be getting KayoSports again after a 2 month break simply for the fact that FoxSports can suck my balls. Kayo gives me just sport, which is all I want. Fox might have something similar but I'll never know.
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@Machpants said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
Bloody annoying that in Ozzie they're getting the RWC in 4k. Are we getting 1080 or 720?
#firstworldproblems
Here, I'll be getting KayoSports again after a 2 month break simply for the fact that FoxSports can suck my balls. Kayo gives me just sport, which is all I want. Fox might have something similar but I'll never know.
@NTA said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
@Machpants said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
Bloody annoying that in Ozzie they're getting the RWC in 4k. Are we getting 1080 or 720?
#firstworldproblems
Here, I'll be getting KayoSports again after a 2 month break simply for the fact that FoxSports can suck my balls. Kayo gives me just sport, which is all I want. Fox might have something similar but I'll never know.
TBF they do - it's called Kayo.
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I’m pleasantly surprised at the ‘No’ response.
I’m a no at this stage. Will watch SA delayed and make a decision then. If too hard to avoid results then I may purchase it.
In saying that, if the games are on in the middle of the night I definitely won’t buy it.
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I’m pleasantly surprised at the ‘No’ response.
I’m a no at this stage. Will watch SA delayed and make a decision then. If too hard to avoid results then I may purchase it.
In saying that, if the games are on in the middle of the night I definitely won’t buy it.
@Hooroo said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
I’m pleasantly surprised at the ‘No’ response.
I’m a no at this stage. Will watch SA delayed and make a decision then. If too hard to avoid results then I may purchase it.
In saying that, if the games are on in the middle of the night I definitely won’t buy it.
The games will be starting between 4PM - 11PM, perfect viewing time for NZ. It’s the delayed coverage that will start in the middle of the night.
E.G. ABs v SA will start at 11PM delayed, ABs v Canada will start after midnight delayed.
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Spark Sport to stream Japan vs South Africa rugby clash on September 6
With just weeks to go until Rugby World Cup 2019, Spark Sport has announced it will exclusively stream the warm-up test match between Japan and South Africa.
Set to take place on Friday, September 6 at 10:15pm (NZT), the test between tournament hosts Japan and one of the world cup favourites, South Africa, is the perfect opportunity for Tournament Pass holders to get familiar with streaming live sport using their Spark Sport app ahead of Rugby World Cup 2019.
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No, because I can’t.
Live 15 minutes from Whangarei and we are on shitty bloody rural broadband, which is not fast enough.
F Spark and F the people who gave them the rights to it.
@Gunner said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
No, because I can’t.
Live 15 minutes from Whangarei and we are on shitty bloody rural broadband, which is not fast enough.
F Spark and F the people who gave them the rights to it.
@Gunner - I'm somewhat holding out hope that on the last weekend before RWC, Spark will announce that people (at least those who are outside their broadcast zone) can subscribe to the Sky pop-up channel that they've set up for commercial premises.
I think I read somewhere that there's at least 40,000 households that don't have adequate bandwidth - so that's potentially $3 million they don't have a shot at accessing - along with a heap of "Hooroo's".
Makes sense for Spark to hold the line on "internet or nothing" for as long as possible, but at the last minute it also makes sense for them maximise revenue.
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@Gunner said in [Poll] Will you use Spark to watch RWC?:
No, because I can’t.
Live 15 minutes from Whangarei and we are on shitty bloody rural broadband, which is not fast enough.
F Spark and F the people who gave them the rights to it.
@Gunner - I'm somewhat holding out hope that on the last weekend before RWC, Spark will announce that people (at least those who are outside their broadcast zone) can subscribe to the Sky pop-up channel that they've set up for commercial premises.
I think I read somewhere that there's at least 40,000 households that don't have adequate bandwidth - so that's potentially $3 million they don't have a shot at accessing - along with a heap of "Hooroo's".
Makes sense for Spark to hold the line on "internet or nothing" for as long as possible, but at the last minute it also makes sense for them maximise revenue.
@Chris-B that's worth holding out for I reckon. But there will be multiple levels of pressure if anything goes wrong with coverage, not that I want it to fail as streaming is ultimately a better model imo.
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@Chris-B that's worth holding out for I reckon. But there will be multiple levels of pressure if anything goes wrong with coverage, not that I want it to fail as streaming is ultimately a better model imo.
@Paekakboyz Yep - but, if people from the media are reading this - don't go writing an article about it, because a decent Game Theory response from Spark would be to shut down the plan!
