Sky TV looking to have last laugh in battle with Spark

Friday, 14 December 2018

The 2019 Rugby World Cup will be broadcast by TVNZ and Spark, not Sky.

There may be a new player coming to town, but Sky TV is ready to take on Spark in a battle for sports rights in New Zealand.

Spark is launching its own internet sports channel next year and have been busily buying up the rights to the Rugby World Cup, Premier League football, Formula One and international hockey.

It's been seen as a major threat to Sky Sports, the only long term player in New Zealand, who'll at last be up against a competitor with deeper pockets than them.

With ultra-fast broadband and more sports looking to control their own broadcasting, it could be argued that Sky Sports' position of dominance has never been more at risk.

* Spark signals interest in Super Rugby and All Blacks tests

* Scotty 'Sumo' Stevenson to front Spark and TVNZ's Rugby World Cup coverage**

But if that's the case, Sky TV's director of sport Richard Last doesn't seem to be panicking and his message to Spark is 'bring it on'.

'Competition is good,' Last told Stuff during a lengthy interview in his office at Sky's Auckland headquarters.

'It means you have to look at what you're doing and you have to allocate your resources more carefully.

'Most of the Rugby World Cup will be on TVNZ, so you can still watch it through your My Sky and still record it.

'It's not the first time Spark have got into PayTV, the first time they did it was with a cable service in the late 1990s.

'Then they were in bed with Colosseum, that didn't work, now they're having another go. That's fine, bring it on. Let's see where we get to.

'We need to be really good at what we're good at, so we'll concentrate on that and for 52 weeks of the year we're going to have something good for sports fans to watch.'

Every broadcaster in New Zealand would love to have the rights to show the All Blacks, but Sky TV have shown a commitment to cover the game at all levels.

It's easy to be critical of Sky and it's become trendy to put the boot into them when things go wrong. But for the most part, the quality of its broadcasting is top notch and through the pop up channels, there's now more of a variety of sports shown than ever before.

Minority New Zealand sports are now getting more coverage, at a time when many of the main media outlets are reducing the number of sports they report on.

But of course, there's the jewel in the crown, rugby, and it's the sport that underpins everything.

It's hard to imagine Sky Sport without rugby, but Spark's head of sport Jeff Latch says he wants it and a big battle is looming for when the rights are next up for grabs, at the end of 2020.

Spark will no doubt throw plenty of money at NZ Rugby in its bid and with its partnership with NEP, the world's largest outside sports broadcaster, it can broadcast sport played in New Zealand.

But Sky won't be giving up rugby without a fight.

'I think we're still the best partner for New Zealand sports bodies,' Last said.

'We cover it right from grass roots, with things like school sevens, schoolboy rugby, through NPC and Farah Palmer Cup. We're committed to the sport from top to bottom, we're not just interested in the All Blacks.

'We've been working with NZ Cricket, NZ Rugby, the Warriors. We've got a long tradition of being able to deliver things reliably. So I suspect we'll be in a strong position, come the renewal of all of those contracts and we don't really want to lose them.'

There's a strong argument that competition for sports rights isn't actually good for viewers and they're better off when there's a monopoly like the one Sky have had.

In the UK for football, their Sky TV, plus BT and Amazon have all bought broadcasting packages from the Premier League.

Spark Sports will have the rights to Premier League football next season.

So if you want to see all the games, you've got to fork out to subscribe to the three companies.

When there's a bidding war for a sport, that extra cost is passed onto the viewer and just because Sky lost out on the Rugby World Cup and Formula One, doesn't mean their subscription fees are going to drop.

The only ones who benefit from competition for sports rights are the sports themselves, not the public.

'Because there are more people interested in the rights they get more expensive,' Last said.

'So you can't cut your price, because the supply price has gone up.

'I can't sit here and say competition is bad, because you're taught from school that competition is good, because that's how the market ensures everyone gets a good service at a good price.'

However, it was inevitable that one day someone was going to try to take on Sky TV.

TVNZ and TV3 gave up the fight a long time ago and when TVNZ did briefly get back into it for last year's Commonwealth Games, they were bombarded with criticism.

'If it's not Spark, it will be someone else, they'll all turn up,' Last said of the competition.

'But we have to make sure we do a fantastic job for NZ Cricket, NZ Football, the Breakers and NZ Rugby.

'We double down, we go again and we try harder.'

AT A GLANCE:

SKY SPORTS

Around 790 sports deals make up the SKY Sport package, including some of the following:

Rugby – Sanzaar events, European rugby deals (Guinness Pro14, French Top 14, Gallagher Premiership, Premier Rugby Cup)

Cricket – NZ Cricket, ICC Events, English Cricket, Cricket Australia

Football – Fifa World Cup, A-League, Uefa Champions League, Uefa Nations League, FA Cup, Serie A, Euro 2020, domestic football

Golf – The Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, Open Championship, The Players Championship, Presidents Cup, Australian PGA Championship, PGA Tour, WGC Events, LPGA Tour, Women's British Open, US Women's Open

Tennis – Australian Open, ASB Classic, Roland Garros, US Open (via ESPN), NZ Champs, ATP Masters (via ESPN).

Netball – Netball NZ, Fast5, Netball World Cup 2019

Rugby League – NRL, Super League

Motorsport – Supercars, MotoGP, Nascar

Cycling – Tour de France Giro d'Italia, La Vuelta, UCI World Championship events.

Athletics – Olympics, IAAF Athletics, European Games 2019

Snooker/pool – World Snooker Tour, Matchroom Package

Darts – Matchroom Package

Rowing – FISA Rowing World Cup, World Rowing Championships

Bowls – Bowls Premier League (Australia & NZ legs)

Basketball – NBL, select NBA games (via ESPN)

ESPN deal – includes NBA, NFL, MLB, US Open Tennis

SPARK

Rugby - Rugby World Cup 2019, Women's Rugby World Cup 2021, World Rugby U20 Championships 2019, Heineken Champions Cup

Football - Premier League, Manchester United TV

Motorsport - Formula One

Hockey - Hockey World Cup, Hockey Pro League, Olympic qualification, National Hockey League