Spark eyes a million armchair sports fans
Spark Sport could allow another 1 million Kiwis to watch paid sports, Spark managing director Simon Moutter says.
Telecommunications company Spark yesterday revealed the pricing for its online sports service, which will launch next month costing $19.99 a month.
At that price, subscribers – who need not be Spark broadband customers – will get ‘‘all you can eat’’ online access to Spark’s sports programming, which will include English Premier League football, Formula One races, NBA basketball, and hockey.
The service will launch early in March with a one-month free trial. After that some content, such as sports highlights and some replays, would still be free.
Spark’s head of sport, Jeff Latch, said the company planned to announce deals for more sports rights soon and, when it did, that programming would be included in the $19.99 monthly pricing.
But the $19.99 monthly pricing will not include the right to watch this year’s Rugby World Cup in Tokyo in September, for which Spark has also bought the rights.
Latch said that would come at an extra cost, which would be announced in April.
Spark Sport’s launch would be a ‘‘market-changing event’’, Moutter said. ‘‘There has been no second player in paid sports in New Zealand for 25 years.
‘‘The main driver of accessibility in sport is price and we are bringing a new model to market that will allow potentially another million people to access sport at much lower price points and in a much more ‘choiceful’ manner,’’ he said.
Moutter said splitting the Rugby World Cup from other sports would be good for some fans as they would be able to pay to watch the World Cup without paying to watch Spark’s other sports, if that was their choice.
He did not rule out Spark offering discounts on Spark Sport – for example to its broadband customers – down the track.
Spark Sport will support ‘‘popular web browsers’’, Apple’s iphone and ipad, Apple Airplay, Android phones and tablets and Google Chromecast, and the ‘‘1080p’’ high-definition format.
During the six months after its launch, Spark also plans to make the service available as an app on Apple TV, Panasonic, LG and Sony Smart televisions.
The company also reported a profit drop of 5.6 per cent to $153 million for the six months to the end of December as its revenues edged down 0.4 per cent to $1.75 billion.
This disappointed investors, with Spark shares falling 3 per cent to $3.91 in morning trade on the New Zealand stock exchange in the result’s wake.
Spark attributed the profit drop to a $28m decline in dividends from its Southern Cross subsea cable joint venture and a rise in its effective income tax rate.
Moutter said Spark had an ‘‘unending focus on costs’’, and he did not see a future where more people were employed in the industry. But he said there were no new ‘‘large, episodic’’ job cuts in the company’s pipeline.