Spark hooks Black Sticks rights
Vodafone TV set-top boxes in February. These would connect to customers’ home wi-fi networks so they needn’t be wired into broadband, and would later support voice commands.
‘‘It is like a ‘Siri’ for Vodafone TV and it is on the road map for before June next year.’’
Paris confirmed Vodafone’s first attempt to market Vodafone NZ to Kiwi investors had stalled because there was too much of a difference between what investors believed it might be worth and Vodafone’s asking price for a stake in the subsidiary.
‘‘The overall market was a lot tougher than we anticipated. That was a big part of the decision by [former chief executive] Russell Stanners to move on,’’ Paris said.
‘‘When we decided the market wasn’t right and the commercial performance of the business wasn’t quite where we needed it to be to float as successfully as we would have liked, the organisation wanted him to stay. But he would have had to stay on to 2021 to see it through and he was struggling to be energised about a 17-year tenure.’’
Vodafone NZ currently employs 3000 staff and Paris said that would reduce, though he did not by how many at this stage.
The company would seek growth opportunities in areas such as entertainment, health, security, the ‘‘internet of things’’ and home automation, he said.
‘‘My vision is we are the most efficiently run telco in New Zealand by the end of next year.’’ 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,
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❚ 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.
Rugby Rugby World Cup 2019 Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 World Rugby U20 Champs 2019 Heineken Champions Cup Football English Premier League Manchester United TV Hockey Hockey World Cup Hockey Pro League and Olympic Qualification, plus rights to the National Hockey League All ‘‘Black Sticks’’ fixtures Motorsports Formula One World Champs Formula 2 Championship GP3 Series 2019 Porsche Super Cup Series