Fans grumble but NZC ‘delighted’ with Spark Sport numbers
Kane Williamson’s club captain can’t watch his boy’s knocks this summer – but this week’s viewing figures, reports Aaron Goile, are due to show that heaps of Kiwis are streaming the new way to watch our national summer sport.
It’s been the most divisive issue of the summer, but New Zealand Cricket ‘‘couldn’t be happier’’ with its move to new broadcasting partner Spark Sport.
As cricket fans continue to vent their frustration at the game’s shift from Sky to the new streaming service, the telco has so far remained tight-lipped on just how many eyes they have had on their prime product.
However, Sunday News understands Spark will this week lift the lid on its closelyguarded secret and present viewership figures. And those numbers have, by all accounts, exceeded expectations, around halfway through the international summer.
It was October 2019 when Spark was announced as trumping Sky as NZC’s new TV partner, grabbing the rights to all cricket in New Zealand – both international and domestic – on a six-year deal.
But more than a year on, the trepidation from punters has continued, as the reality sinks in. Barbecues, birthday parties, wherever you go and the conversation turns to cricket, the issue of actually being able to watch the action gets aired. And then there’s all the scathing social media posts.
So while the Black Caps enjoy unprecedented success, rising to No 1 in the world test rankings for the first time, and captain Kane Williamson reaches the top of the batting rankings again, just how many out there are actually tuned in to the fine feats? The irony is not lost on Stephen Crossan, the president and senior captain at the Te
Puke Cricket Club – Williamson’s club.
Here is their boy, plundering a stunning century and two double-hundreds in his four test knocks of the season, yet Crossan, ‘‘an avid cricket fan’’, is not one of those glued to the skipper’s masterclasses.
Crossan, 30, and his wife live rurally, though only just, in Maketu, and he knew as soon as Spark was announced as the new rights partner that his cricketwatching days were doomed.
‘‘I was sceptical, and probably more frustrated than anything,’’ he says. ‘‘Because I knew, living rurally, that I don’t have good enough broadband to be able to stream live sport.’’
Through Spark, Crossan has a 120GB per month plan with his 4G modem, but with his wife working from home there isn’t the capacity to also stream the cricket.
Get unlimited data then? Crossan notes that as a nice gesture Spark did provide them with that during lockdown, but when he enquired about the possibility of buying more, he couldn’t. Same story with other providers, unless he wanted dialup speed.
Losing the cricket rights was the last straw for his Sky subscription, with Crossan cancelling that around six months ago.
He now gets his cricket fix by visiting his dad, who ‘‘struggles through’’ with Spark Sport on his rural property, or borrowing his account to view ‘‘dismal’’ highlights’ packages which he feels just aren’t well put together.
Crossan says there is mixed sentiment around his club about the move to Spark.
‘‘One of the comments was: ‘not many positives, glitches quite often, loses high definition’.
‘‘Another of the comments was: ‘pretty happy, it’s been decent, but just struggle with the Chromecasting thing, it’s quite hard to manage, not so userfriendly.
‘‘I guess it depends on everyone’s experience. If you’ve got a Smart TV and you get the app, it’s simple, it’s right there, you turn your TV on and it’s
ready to go. But if you’ve got the whole Chromecast, streaming it off your device, it just creates an extra bit of frustration.’’
NZC says it’s not its role to put viewing numbers out there, it’s Sparks. The latter is going to oblige, in something of a mid-season report, but both organisations used the word ‘‘delighted’’ when asked their feelings on how things have tracked so far in their new partnership at the wicket.
‘‘We couldn’t be happier with the progress to date, to be quite honest,’’ NZC chief executive David White says in the wake of the Black Caps’ two Twenty20 and test series against the West Indies and Pakistan.
The head of Spark Sport, Jeff Latch, said his company’s subscriber numbers would remain confidential, but the viewership figures to be released
were a pleasant surprise for his team.
‘‘We had what we thought were pretty realistic expectations, and the audiences have been significantly greater than that,’’ he says.
‘‘And we’ve got no doubt we’ll get a whole lot more people coming in for the upcoming Australia T20s [starting February 22].
‘‘We’re expecting that the audiences will continue to grow as we go through the summer.’’
Spark charges $24.99 per month for its package – which includes a variety of other sports – while they also offer a sevenday free trial.
‘‘It’s a lot less than our competitor,’’ Latch notes.
However, with its competitor [Sky] still holding the rights to most overseas cricket (except England) and World Cups, ardent fans do indeed need to fork out for both.
White, though, is unwavering that this new deal ticks NZC’s big box of reaching new audiences, as, under the agreement, one T20 from each of the Black Caps’ and White Ferns’ series screens live on TVNZ 1 (along with some of the domestic Super Smash T20 matches).
‘‘We are now accessing more Kiwis than ever before and more new fans than we ever have,’’ he says.
But there aren’t, both NZC and Spark say, any plans in the six-year agreement to put any test cricket on free-to-air.
In any case, White has been ‘‘very encouraged’’ by what he deemed strong interest in the five-day game.
While there weren’t many upsides to the Covid-19 lockdown last year, it did come at a good time for Spark, Latch says, as it fasttracked Kiwis’ in-home technology setups.
‘‘We think it’s moved the whole penetration of digitalisation of the home forward at least a year, because of everything that’s happened with people having to work remotely from home and get themselves really organised and set up.’’
Latch feels the only real issue they continue to encounter with customers is people new to streaming leaving it too close to their event start time to set up their account.
‘‘There’s really good systems and support networks now out there to help people get set up in the home, but if you leave it till the 11th hour, half an hour before the first ball’s going to be bowled, and you’re not an expert on streaming, that’s tough for everyone,’’ he says.
‘‘Come on a few days earlier than the first event you want to watch, so that we can work with you to make sure you’re set up really well in the house and you get a terrific viewing experience.’’
White acknowledges the move to a digital platform ‘‘is a challenge’’ for some of the older generation, ‘‘But we’ve got to make the game for the future as well’’.
‘‘Of course our older people are incredibly important for us, but we’d like to think that they will adapt with the change over time as well.’’
Retirement villages spoken to by Sunday News had varied responses on whether they had taken up Spark Sport for their residents – many of whom are the ones who actually have the time to watch a lot of a five-day test.
But White is buoyed by the response his organisation has had from younger fans.
‘‘And that’s important that we do look at the young people and the fresh audience going forward, because that’s the future of New Zealand cricket.’’
A big part of that positive feedback from more youthful types centres on the increase in social media video clips posted by NZC during matches – something the organisation didn’t have such power over when with Sky.
‘‘Under our new arrangement with Spark, we have got a lot more accessibility to highlights and clips, and both us and Spark are pushing them out,’’ White says. ‘‘And that’s how people like to consume content now.
‘‘People like to snack, watch bits and pieces.’’
NZC also points out that at the start of the season it had 50,000 subscribers to its official YouTube channel, but now that has grown to 825,000.
White says any negative reaction he had heard about the switch to Spark was ‘‘simply about change’’ – something many struggle with.
He is in no way worried about the future generation of New Zealand’s cricketers, who may be watching more of Steve Smith or Pat Cummins, than Williamson or Kyle Jamieson.
‘‘We’re starting a six-year agreement,’’ he notes, urging some patience. ‘‘And we are very very encouraged by the progress we’re making.
‘‘And I think just moving with the advancement of technology, and in line with consumer habits, is really working for us, and I think it’s going to put cricket in a very strong position moving forward.’’
In terms of the product itself, White says there has been particularly good feedback around the high quality of work of Spark’s production company, Whisper, along with the ‘‘contemporary’’ commentary team, whose insights are ‘‘fresh and leading edge’’.
Something like the Inside Edge Q & A segment between fans and commentators comes about because, Latch says, research shows around 96% of people when watching live sport are also engaging with a second screen.