The big transfer of sports rights from the departing Spark Sport service to TVNZ+ happens on Saturday, July 1. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more sport available on your television – but it does mean there’s much more that can be watched for free.
That entails advertising – although TVNZ has promised ads “will be placed mindfully to ensure minimal disruption to the live action”. It’ll all be gathered at a new sports hub within TVNZ+, which will stream live sport, replays and highlights. Scotty Stevenson will lead TVNZ’s local commentary teams for cricket and other local sport.
TVNZ’s prime content, as it was for Spark Sport, will be New Zealand cricket, with Black Caps and White Ferns home internationals, all Super Smash games and domestic one-day finals streamed live. The big matches will also screen on broadcast channels, with men’s and women’s T20s on TVNZ 1 and one-day internationals and tests going out on Duke.
You’ll also be able to watch the rest of the Ashes series – after the cracking opening match fell between stools and wasn’t screened here by anyone – and future internationals controlled by England and Wales Cricket.
NFL fans will now get their fix on TVNZ+, with essentially the same service as Spark provided. Men’s football is limited to the FA Cup, but TVNZ will carry the UK Women’s Super League and next year’s international Arnold Clark Cup. In tennis, there’s the US Open and the Women’s Tennis Association. International Basketball Federation rights deliver 10 matches from the Women’s Asia Cup and the under-19 World Cup in the first week of the new service. Elite track and field comes with the Diamond League, which runs until September, with the Stockholm meet screening this week.
In netball, the shift to the new streaming hub comes just in time for the Super netball Preliminary final (July 1) and the final on July 8.
There’s motorsport too: Sky Sport regained Formula 1 rights from Spark Sport late last year, but TVNZ has picked up MotoGP and the World Rally Championship.
While the major rugby rights remain the jewel in Sky’s crown, TVNZ has the United Rugby Championship, in which the former South African Super Rugby teams battle it out with British and Irish clubs, and rights from Lakapi Samoa (Manu Samoa Rugby). Look out for the Fiji v Manu Samoa international on Saturday July 29, which will also screen live on TVNZ 1.
Sky, of course, still has most of the big prizes, including the Fifa Women’s World Cup, in which the Football Ferns face Norway in the opening match at Eden Park on July 20. There’s also the Tour de France (starting July 2), Wimbledon and, of course, the NRL, the All Blacks and the Black Ferns. And just so you know how valuable those are, Sky is raising the price of both its Sky Sport channels and Sky Sport Now.
But even there, there’s still some free-to-air viewing to be had. Prime will be screening Wimbledon live from July 3, as well as highlights from the Women’s PGA golf and the Austrian Grand Prix.
It all adds up to a lot of couch time. If only watching sport came with the health benefits of actually playing it. Some of us would pay for that.
