Spark hooks Black Sticks rights

Spark has picked up the broadcasting rights for the FIH Hockey event series, including all Vantage Black Sticks men’s and women’s competitions.

The broadband and phone company said it would produce and be the host broadcaster for all FIH (International Hockey Federation) Pro League matches played in New Zealand, in partnership with production company NEP New Zealand.

The four-year deal marks Spark’s first move into sports production. It said in a statement to the New Zealand stock exchange that the move demonstrated its ambition to become ‘‘a key player in the local sports market’’.

It said it will announce more sports rights in coming weeks.

Last month Spark announced it had secured the New Zealand rights to the Formula One championship, starting with the Australian Grand Prix in March.

Spark first threw down the gauntlet to Sky Television in April when it announced it had won the rights to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Tokyo.

It followed that up in August by winning the rights to broadcast English Premier League matches for three seasons, starting from next August.

Spark will launch a new sports streaming service, Spark Sport, early next year to deliver the programming, Spark chief financial officer David Chalmers said. United States firm iStreamPlanet,

Telco’s big wins

Rugby World Cup 2019 Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 World Rugby U20 Champs 2019 Heineken Champions Cup

English Premier League Manchester United TV

Hockey World Cup Hockey Pro League and Olympic Qualification, plus rights to the National Hockey League

All ‘‘Black Sticks’’ fixtures

Formula One World Champs Formula 2 Championship GP3 Series

2019 Porsche Super Cup Series a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, would be providing the technology for Spark Sport, he said.

Plans and pricing have yet to be disclosed.

But Spark spokeswoman Ellie Cross has indicated the company might have enough sports content for it to offer all its sports for a single price as well as letting customers – who need not be Spark broadband customers – subscribe to watch individual events and competitions.

Cross confirmed Spark was in a legal dispute with a retailer that used the Spark Sport name. The web address ‘‘sparksport.co.nz’’ was bagged in April, registered to a residential address in Birkdale. She said Spark was not the registrant and would not comment on whether it might take action to try to claim the domain.

NEP entered the New Zealand market earlier this year through a takeover of NZ Live, sparking speculation – which has now been borne out – that it could loosen Sky’s grip on local sports production.

NEP said at the time that it had the technology to produce Kiwi sports broadcasts either in New Zealand, or at ‘‘hubs’’ it has set up in Sydney or Melbourne.

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