Streaming Wars: Spark grabs more cricket, Sky extends netball deal

"l'll have to buy how many subscriptions?" Photo / Getty

The streaming wars continue with Spark grabbing more cricket rights, but Sky extending its deal with Netball NZ until 2024.

Spark says it has signed a highlights deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) covering various T20 and World Cup events up to 2023 (see full list below).

Spark Sport will receive clips of up to six minutes of 'in-match highlights' of every hour of play in the hour immediately after. So you'll get your highlights of the previous hour after the next one starts. There deal does not include any full match replays or full live coverage which (stay with me) will remain with Sky.

Earlier this month, Spark signed deal with NZ Cricket, giving Spark Sport domestic cricket rights six years from 2020.

Sky countered just days later, saying it had retained its exclusive broadcasting deal with the ICC until the 2023 Men's World Cup in India, including Twenty20 tournaments and qualifiers until then.

And earlier, Sky said it had secured a six-year deal with Cricket Australia for broadcasting rights across the Tasman, including the iconic Boxing Day test.

Separately, Sky said this morning that it had extended its partnership with Netball NZ through to 2024.

The agreement includes all Silver Ferns games and all domestic top tier events, including:

• The Constellation Cup
• ANZ Premiership matches
• National netball league
• National age group championship matches.

Sky did not put a number on the deal. In a research note earlier this year, Forsyth Barr estimated Sky was spending $10m a year on its current netball deal.

Jennie Wylie, Netball NZ chief executive, said the multi-year deal provided financial certainty for the sporting body. It delivered an operating surplus of $297,000 in the 12 months ended Nov. 30, 2018, turning around a deficit of $337,000 a year earlier. Of its $18.8 million of annual income, $2.5 million came from Sport New Zealand and High-Performance Sport NZ.

"Netball is the number one female team sport in New Zealand with around 145,000 players across the country," Wylie said.

"Sky has shown a genuine commitment to women's sport in New Zealand, and it's great to be working together on some new initiatives at the grassroots level. We look forward to announcing details soon."

Sky earlier revealed it had signed a new Sanzaar deal, stitching up All Blacks and Super Rugby rights through to 2026, which the Herald understands cost $400m. Sky also gave NZ Rugby a five per cent shareholding as part of the "revolutionary" deal.

Rugby League is next up for grabs, though it could be 12 to 24 months or longer until we see who wins the code. Sky signed a new five-year deal with the NRL in 2018, valued by ForBarr at $30m per year.

Spark says its digital rights partnership with ICC includes rights to make available near-live, in-match content, as well as post-match highlights clips (provided by the ICC) on-demand for all global ICC events, including the following major ICC events:

• ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020
• ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2020
• ICC Women's World Cup 2021
• ICC World Test Championship Final 2021
• ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021
• ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2022
• ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023
• ICC World Test Championship Final 2023

Spark Sport Jeff Latch said, "We know that New Zealanders love cricket but understand the challenges that come with finding the time to regularly watch live matches, especially when they are played overseas. So, we're excited to announce this new ICC deal which gives cricket fans the chance to catch the best highlights clips from all the big games in an exciting short package, available to watch on-demand at a time that's convenient to the viewer."

Latch added, "The ability to watch sports content on-demand is one of the key differences between streaming and traditional television viewing, which makes this new deal an attractive offering to Spark Sport subscribers."

While some fans have complained they now have to subscribe to both Sky and Spark Sport, Latch said earlier that his company's push into streaming had forced Sky to drop the price of its Sky Sport Now app from $99.99/month to $39.99 a month while adding new features.