Spark Sport partner with SKY to show Rugby World Cup 2019™

Spark Sport and SKY announce that commercial premises that want to show Rugby World Cup 2019™ will be able to buy access to a Spark Sport pop-up channel on their SKY decoder. This is in addition to Spark Sport’s existing offer to commercial customers to stream Rugby World Cup matches from the Spark Sport app over their broadband connection.

As announced in April, commercial customers can purchase a Spark Sport Rugby World Cup Tournament Pass at the consumer price through sparksport.co.nz/rwc2019. This option gives both consumer and commercial customers access to all 48 matches live and on demand, plus access to a range of highlights and archive matches.

Additionally, from today, SKY commercial customers can buy access to a Spark Sport RWC pop-up channel through SKY, which includes all 48 matches live. Commercial customers can access the pop-up channel for a one-off cost at commercial rates. Rates are confidential but reflect the quality and scale of the event.

Under the terms of the partnership, Spark will cover the costs of SKY establishing the pop-up channel and will receive all related revenue from SKY commercial customers.

David Chalmers, Executive Lead for Spark Sport, explains, “After testing in a wide range of commercial environments, we are confident in the Spark Sport streaming service that we are making available for commercial premises. But we also wanted to provide an alternative option for venues that would prefer to use their existing infrastructure, particularly for those locations without streaming-ready broadband connectivity.

“This partnership with SKY means that commercial businesses which already have SKY set up in their premises have options for how they screen the tournament, to ensure that as many commercial premises around New Zealand as possible can show the Rugby World Cup in its entirety.”

Sophie Moloney, SKY’s Strategic Partnerships lead, said that “Watching the Rugby World Cup is a special activity for many New Zealanders, and a big part of the sports calendar for pubs and clubs throughout the country. We are pleased to be able to work together with Spark to deliver this alternative access option for our commercial customers, including those in rural areas who don’t yet have access to fast enough broadband.”

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