Rural black spots for World Cup

Pubs in large pockets of rural New Zealand may miss out on high-quality live coverage of the Rugby World Cup this year – and the chance to take up Spark’s cut-price offer.

Spark now has the rights for the coverage and it will be delivered via the internet.

It is offering businesses the same rate as households to stream the games – but whether all can access it is another question.

Spark has been upfront about the fact that its deal comes with technical requirements and is urging hospitality businesses that want to screen games to ensure they have ‘‘high-quality, unlimited data broadband connection, ideally a fibre connection’’.

Technology commentator Peter Griffin said despite the rollout of ultra-fast broadband around the country, it would take years to get to some areas.

There would be pockets that would never have it.

‘‘While it’s great to have competition in pay TV around sports, the flipside of that [is] some of our friends in rural areas are going to miss out and even heading down to the local pub isn’t going to guarantee a quality feed.’’

Richard Pratt, owner of the Whangamomona Hotel in Taranaki, which pays about $600 a month currently for Sky TV, said it would be unlikely to take up Spark’s offer – even though it is offering all the games for just under $60.

‘‘I would be surprised if the hotel’s terrestrial-based broadband would be able to cope with the streaming live.

‘‘Spark can suggest all they like but I would have my doubts.’’

Pratt also had doubts about Spark’s ability to stream an event with such huge demand.

‘‘I think the streaming of the Rugby World Cup will be a disaster because of what happened in the Soccer World Cup.

‘‘They tried to stream the World Cup into Australia and it crashed, it couldn’t cope with the interest,’’ he said.

But Paul Kennedy, duty manager at Te Puka Tavern in Tokomaru Bay, a famously remote area, said it wouldn’t be a problem for them.

‘‘We have wi-fi – we’ll be showing it,’’ he said.

Spark says it has an operational contingency plan for issues that arise.

If there is any significant disruption to the streaming service, the match will be switched to live broadcast on the TVNZ Duke channel.

Griffin was sceptical that interim or temporary measures would be effective.

‘‘The idea of putting up a temporary fixed wireless connection to ensure coverage for the Rugby World Cup would incur a lot of cost.