Test in-home streaming set up ahead of quarter final matches

18 October 2019

Spark Sport encourages more customers to test in-home streaming set up ahead of weekend’s Rugby World Cup quarter final matches

Spark Sport is confident all measures are in place to ensure its broadband streaming service works well during this weekend’s crucial Rugby World Cup quarter final matches.

Over the 37 RWC pool matches played since September 20, the streaming platform delivering matches into people’s homes has performed as expected in all but one match – the exception being the New Zealand vs South Africa match on Day 2 of the tournament, during which a minority of customers experienced poor video quality due to Spark back-end delivery issues.

Those issues were not related to the number of customers streaming this match and throughout the tournament to date the network has operated well within capacity. As a consequence, Spark does not anticipate the high viewership expected over this coming weekend will cause any capacity-related or other technical concerns.

In addition to successfully streaming all remaining RWC matches, the recent focus of the Spark Sport team has been on helping as many customers as possible have a better Rugby World Cup viewing experience, especially by identifying improvements to their in-home technology setup.

Over the past fortnight, we’ve had around 17,000 interactions via our Care channels (with everything from complex troubleshooting, to basic help such as password resets). Most of these customers have received the support they need over the phone or online chat, although several hundred have been assisted through an in-home visit or have received a complimentary Freeview SmartVU device as an alternative way to watch.

Although we believe these steps have gone a long way to help many more New Zealanders get themselves match-ready for live broadband streaming, we know there are Spark Sport customers who haven’t watched a RWC match over the past week or two, and we suspect some of them may still need help with their in-home technology setup. We expected we would help many of them for the All Blacks’ match against Italy last Saturday, but unfortunately this was cancelled due to typhoon Hagibis.

We want everyone to have a great experience on Saturday evening, and we understand that streaming live sport is a new technology which can sometimes be frustrating for people who are unfamiliar with streaming live content online. We want to help, so we encourage all Spark Sport customers who experienced issues last time they watched a match and haven’t resolved their issues permanently since then, to get in touch with our Care teams (help.sparksport.co.nz or 0800 792 787) well in advance of kickoff. We also encourage customers to do a quick health check of their setup by going onto Spark Sport and watching something from the catalogue of on-demand rugby content available on their device of choice for watching the big games.

In anticipation of a busy weekend of rugby, Spark Sport has increased the capacity of its dedicated care team who will be available from 7am Saturday to help customers troubleshoot their issues.

For Spark Sport’s top device and set up tips visit https://help.sparksport.co.nz/rugby-world-cup-2019/top-troubleshooting-tips

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