Spark laces up for Premier League
Spark has secured the exclusive rights to show Premier League football matches in New Zealand from next year.
In a blow to Sky Television, the company said it saw an opportunity to create a ‘‘standalone sports media business’’ and meet the evolving needs of Kiwi sports viewers.
Managing director Simon Moutter confirmed Spark was now competing head-to-head with Sky and other businesses for sports rights, but forecast Spark would not win everything.
‘‘I don’t think there is a pathway where somehow Spark ends up not competing for rights, [but] it does not feel like a ‘wipe-out’ play for Sky,’’ he said.
Spark has won the New Zealand rights to the Premier League from August next year through to May 2022 and will stream the games over the internet, showing every match live and on-demand, as well as packaged highlights.
Spark said it had also secured the rights to Manchester United TV (MUTV) and had ‘‘more sports content announcements to come’’.
The rights to this year’s EPL season, ending in May next year, will continue to be held by BeIN sports, which also offers the competition to Sky.
But after that, matches will be sold on a subscription basis on a new Spark ‘‘sport platform’’ that will launch early next year, with details of pricing and packages still to come.
Spokeswoman Lucy Fullarton confirmed fans would not need to buy their broadband from Spark in order to watch.
Moutter said Spark intended to be ‘‘a key player in the evolving sports media landscape’’.
‘‘We are setting out to transform the way sport is distributed and viewed in New Zealand – in the same way general entertainment viewing has been transformed by the likes of Lightbox, Netflix and YouTube,’’ he said.
‘‘You have got to be realistic; Sky is a big business and highly capable and they have some skills we don’t. We are trying to find our place in this market – we are a big business and we have some advantages of our own,’’ he said.
‘‘We continue to be disciplined when it comes to investments of this nature, with our considered moves into the area of sports content focused on a package of rights that we’re confident we can commercialise.’’
The Premier League win follows an announcement by Spark in April that it had beaten Sky to the rights to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Tokyo.
Moutter’s plan to build a ‘‘standalone’’ sports media business appears to kill the prospect of a possible rapprochement with Sky after the companies struck a deal in June that lets Spark resell Sky’s Fan Pass streaming sports service at a steep discount to Fan Pass’ usual monthly price.
Australian telecommunications company Optus came a cropper this year when it botched the streaming of the Fifa World Cup in Moscow and was forced to hand over the competition to free-to-air television.
Spark indicated it was seeking to learn the lessons from that debacle.
Moutter said it would be partnering with a ‘‘specialist sports-streaming platform provider’’ to deliver its content.