Spark Sport axed, cricket rights go to TVNZ
Friday, 16 December 2022
Spark will shut down its Spark Sport streaming service and expects TVNZ will take over most of its broadcasting rights from July.
TVNZ said it so far agreed to broadcast Black Cap, White Fern, and Super Smash matches for three years, from the start of the 2023 season until the end of the 2025-26 season, on its free-to-air channels TV One and Duke.
It would also livestream the more than 300 cricket fixtures that it now has rights to on TVNZ+, it said.
TVNZ sport manager Melodie Robinson said having a major sport such as cricket free-to-air was “a huge win for all New Zealanders”.
“History shows us that the more our communities can access sports in a viewing capacity, the more likely they are to get out there and participate in sports themselves,” she said.
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TVNZ would not disclose how much it would pay for the offloaded cricket rights, but confirmed interest in other rights held by Spark and said it was committed to broadcasting anything it did pick up from Spark free-to-air.
Chief among the other rights TVNZ could pick up is the right to show UEFA Champions League football in the season starting in August, before Spark’s rights end the following year.
Sky TV announced that it had won back the rights to show Formula 1 races, after Spark’s rights expire at the end of this month.
The closure of Spark Sport will result in Spark writing off $52 million from its operating profit this year, though it will still report a bumper profit thanks to an agreement to sell a majority stake in its cellphone towers in a lease-back deal.
Spark said the decision to exit sports had been triggered by escalating content rights costs and a “broader range of investment opportunities across its business”.
It had also been faced with the cost of securing a new streaming platform as the current system it licences from United States firm Istreamplanet would no longer be available to third parties such as Spark from the second half of next year, it said.
NZ Cricket chief executive David White said the reassignment of its rights had “happened very quickly to be quite honest”.
TVNZ content director Kate Slater said it was a “great opportunity” for the state-owned broadcaster.
“We have been back in sport for the last few years. It is a big part of our content strategy because we know it drives big live audiences.”
But Slater said it had been a very long time since the domestic rights to any national sports code had been exclusively available free-to-air, noting TVNZ last had the rights to cricket in the 1998-99 season.
Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson said Spark would be looking to redeploy staff currently involved with Spark Sport in other parts of the business.
“It has been challenging to reach the scale we aspired to across the Spark Sport platform, with Covid causing major disruption to sporting codes globally just a year after launch,” Hodson said.
“That slower than expected start, coupled with the escalating costs of content rights globally, makes it difficult to justify the type of investment Spark Sport requires,” she said.
Spark’s withdrawal from the streaming market removes the only major competitor to Sky TV in the pay-TV sports market.
Spark Sport was launched by former Spark chief executive Simon Moutter in 2019.
He believed the service could attract a million paid subscribers and become a significant competitor to Sky TV.
However, there has long been speculation that it might prove only a temporary venture for Spark.
Speculation it could one day pull out of the market accelerated when Hodson replaced Moutter later in 2019, and as a result of the loss of some of its early sports rights.
In February, Sky announced it had won back the local rights to broadcast English Premier League football matches, which had been one of Spark Sports’ key attractions, and Sky has also successfully shored up most of its rugby rights.
Sky TV shares opened up one cent at $2.25 when trading started on the NZX on Friday, while Spark shares opened down 2 cents at $5.52.