Efforts to ensure fans get fibre
INFRASTRUCTURE company Chorus says it will be working ‘‘very closely’’ with Spark to ensure those wanting fibre, where available, will get it.
Spark and TVNZ confirmed on Monday they had the broadcast rights for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and that most of the games would be livestreamed over the internet.
TVNZ will screen seven games freetoair, including the opening game and the final. There is no guarantee all All Blacks games will be live on freetoair.
Complaints about TVNZ’s coverage of the recent Commonwealth Games and the lack of suitable broadband coverage in some parts of the country have already caused concern among avid rugby fans. Asked by the Otago Daily
Times whether Chorus was ready for a flood of people seeking ultrafast broadband connections through fibre, a spokesman said fibre demand was very strong.
About 18,000 fibre connections were being completed per month which was ‘‘pretty impressive’’, the spokesman said.
Uptake was sitting at 43%. ‘‘When the UFB programme first started, the general view was it would be pretty impressive if we could get to 20% uptake by 2020. We’re still hiring fibre technicians to keep up with demand, too,’’ the spokesman said.
Spark said rugby fans could have access to all World Cup games for about $100.
Spark also confirmed it had broadcast rights to the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2021, this year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens and the 2018 under20 world championship.
All of the content would be available across any device, and all games would be in a catalogue on a screen app so customers would not need to record matches, but could pick and choose when they wanted to view.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said getting New Zealanders to watch the content online could pose a challenge to Spark and TVNZ but it would force people to make a decision, and Sky Network TV could be the loser.