Concerns aired on rugby TV deal

WELLINGTON: Spark and TVNZ securing rights to broadcast the Rugby World Cup next year is being described as ‘‘a real kick in the guts’’ for rural New Zealand.

The rights have previously been held by Sky TV so anyone who had a Sky box would have access to the games.

Games in next year’s event will be broadcast across Spark’s broadband network, but some remote areas in New Zealand have limited or lowspeed internet access, which could restrict viewing.

Canterbury sheep farmer Murray Smith said while he had both Sky and Spark broadband, his internet was slow and not capable of streaming video to a high standard.

He said the decision would leave people unable to watch the games.

‘‘I’m concerned about people that are more remote than us who would probably have got Sky for the fact that they like watching live rugby and they may not have access to broadband,’’ Smith said.

‘‘It’s a real kick in the guts for rural New Zealand.’’

Spark managing director Simon Moutter has said the company would be doing its best to ensure everyone had access to the event, and in extreme situations, would be looking to screen games at local rugby clubs or schools which had internet.

He said there would only be a small number of people in New Zealand who would not have access by the time of the World Cup.

‘‘We’ll figure out a way to make it accessible, and I do remind people that accessibility for the last Rugby World Cup was limited to homes that had a Sky box,’’ Mr Moutter said.

‘‘We would never have bid for this if we didn’t think the network could handle it, and we could deliver.’’

Although plans to set up at local sites was admirable, Mr Smith said people such as his parents, who are in their mid80s, were not likely to drive to a school or rugby club to watch the game.

Rural broadband supplier Farmside’s chief executive Jason Sharp said while there was a rural broadband initiative being introduced, there would be pockets where challenges would arise.

‘‘We’re looking at how we can prioritise delivery of rugby across our internet for customers and looking at technology that will prioritise the traffic, but also data is an issue,’’ Mr Sharp said.

‘‘In a rural environment you don’t have the benefit of unlimited data so any streaming will have a massive impact on your data consumption, so we’re also looking at how we protect that.’’

Spark had 18 months to prepare for the event and Mr Moutter said he was confident the company would be ready. — NZME