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Home / Business / Companies / Telecommunications

Three weeks from Rugby World Cup, more trouble for Spark Sport

Chris Keall
By Chris Keall
Technology Editor/Senior Business Writer·NZ Herald·
1 Sep, 2019 07:25 PM3 mins to read

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For some, another frustrating weekend. Photo / Getty

For some, another frustrating weekend. Photo / Getty

Just three weeks out from the Rugby World Cup, Spark Sport continues to wobble.

After glitches during the first two rounds of the English Premier League, Spark Sport kept a clean sheet last weekend.

But on Sunday morning, there was more grief for some users.

Spark Sport acknowledged through its Twitter account that "We'd like to let our customers know that we are aware of an issue with the live stream for Newcastle United V Watford."

A stream of angry comments followed the post. Subscriber Marc Butler posted, " Spark [is] in over its head."

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And there was also trouble with Manchester United-Southhampton match, with subscriber Levi Barrow posting, "Coverage of the MUFC game cut out several times and for minutes at a time. Worse still, I logged in on my phone to see if it worked on there and despite closing the app, logging out, logging out on laptop, refreshing page. "

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The person managing Spark Sport's Twitter account replied, "Sorry about that, Levi, I experienced it myself."

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The highlight packages for the eight games played on Sunday morning were late, then when they did arrive they had no audio.

Subscriber Paul Le Compte complained about lack of commentary on highlights clips, saying it ruined his Father's Day viewing with his sons. Spark Sport apologised and said it was "an issue with the source."

There was also an elevated number of general complaints.

The weekend also saw Spark Sport purposefully remove one stream from its Motorsport section: the F2 race at the Belgium Grand Prix that saw driver Anthoine Hubert tragically killed in a horrific crash.

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Spark Sport has yet to supply detailed comment to the Herald but a spokeswoman did note that the games that streamed Monday morning NZT had no problems.

Going into the weekend, there was good news and bad news, with Spark Sport head Jeff Latch saying the service would return to full-blooded video in time for the World Cup (having earlier chopped back from 30 frames per second to 60fps, drawing complaints from some fans).

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But Latch also has to concede that Spark Sport would not be ready for 2017 and 2018 LG smart TVs in time for the RWC, and the All Blacks' squad announcement again highlighted the service's delay, which is now officially pegged at 20 to 40 seconds behind the live action.

This is what I get on all the clips on my Apple TV. Can’t watch anything. Help! pic.twitter.com/aSqGv53jhR

— DialSquare 🇮🇱🎗️ (@DialSquareNZ) August 31, 2019
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