SPK- Spark NZ (TELCO)

[Baa_Baa]

Picture was just perfect for me. I am really impressed so far. Long live Spark sport. Camera work never as good as NZ sport filming.

Perfect here too, for all coverage so far including last nights AB vs SA game, stunning picture quality, no glitches whatsoever. CopperVDSL -> NetGear Nighthawk -> iPhone SparkApp -> ChromeCast -> Sony HDTV.

Brilliant

[bull....]

I can only complain about the AB's and Boks game last night as we were treated for almost a dozen lapses or lagging instances. There was no problem on the Opening Ceremony the other night and just a bout a thing or two on all the other games. Oh well, they cannot probably perfect it in just a couple of days. But still, kudos should be given to SPK.

i had easy a dozen buffering issues which by the end of the game it was 2 mins behind live. also at 1 stage i lost video and audio and had to reset page and another instance of video freeze but audio carried on. overall was disappointing to not have a seamless viewing experience.

[ratkin]

i had easy a dozen buffering issues which by the end of the game it was 2 mins behind live. also at 1 stage i lost video and audio and had to reset page and another instance of video freeze but audio carried on. overall was disappointing to not have a seamless viewing experience.

Problem is that even a little stuttering ruins the immersion. Instead of concentrating on the game you are wondering if your connection is about to crap out.

What I also find with the football is it uses up a fair bit of your monthly allowance, so if you are not on unlimited (most spark plans are not) then you run out of data mid month.
All part of their cunning plan no doubt. I am on unplan which is progressively more expensive the more data you use, and has a top maximum of 300 gigs. It sounds a lot, but download an xbox game and watch u tube etc plus all the rugby and it will all be gone.

Even worse is that if you get near that 300 Two months in a row they actually start phoning you up complaining you are using too much data, even though you are still within the 300 limit. Pathetic

[RTM]

We had a really bad experience with the AB game. They earlier games were great. Excellent picture, smooth, clear easy to watch.
But many and varied problems during the AB's game.
Just sound and a green screen.
No sound.
I hear the man this morning saying it was an international problem...but then why did it only happen with the AB's game ? Seems like a load issue. And not sure that will be easy to resolve.

Fortunately...the sun did still come up this morning.

( Copper / VDSL -> iPad -> AppleTV -> Panasonic TV)

[fungus pudding]

Problem is that even a little stuttering ruins the immersion. Instead of concentrating on the game you are wondering if your connection is about to crap out.

What I also find with the football is it uses up a fair bit of your monthly allowance, so if you are not on unlimited (most spark plans are not) then you run out of data mid month.
All part of their cunning plan no doubt. I am on unplan which is progressively more expensive the more data you use, and has a top maximum of 300 gigs. It sounds a lot, but download an xbox game and watch u tube etc plus all the rugby and it will all be gone.

Even worse is that if you get near that 300 Two months in a row they actually start phoning you up complaining you are using too much data, even though you are still within the 300 limit. Pathetic

You do not have to be with spark. Any provider will do. Phone them up and ask to upgrade to unlimited, and if they mention an extra charge tell them to hold fire because you are going to switch to another provider with a better plan. I have done it several times and ended up with unlimited, nation wide toll calling and all sorts of goodies, plus a discount. That's with Vodafone. They have a 'customer retention officer' you can ask to speak to. Other telecoms will be just as keen to hang onto you. With Netflix, replay and on demand unlimited will become standard soon I imagine.
You can even lie through your teeth and tell them an opposition isp has knocked on your door, canvassing for business, with a great deal, but you are reluctant to change. (There really are door knockers ding the rounds, so they won't doubt you.) All's fair in love, war, and dealing with telcos.

[ScrappyO]

Im on fibre and it was a quality issue for me. The screens frame rate intermittently changed. I Ended up watching the second half on Duke. As a Shareholder its very disappointing. Fingers crossed that they can sort it out as quick as possible.

[Bobdn]

Spk not doing so well. Are people waking up to the fact that the "content game" is expensive?

Ferret was expensive. TiVo was expensive. The little excursion to Australia? Expensive. Light box? Expensive.

Looking forward to finding out how much the WRC will cost along with Spark Sport. I imagine it will be...expensive.

Back from self exile. My post from February. Wow - how unfortunate. So not only did Spark pay a huge amount for the WRC rights but it turns out they can't actually get the product out to all it's customers. I guess this is bad, right? I'm not all that savvy in the ways of big business so not 100 per cent sure.

Some customers demanding refunds! Again, on the surface, sounds bad. But again, I could be missing nuance.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12269753

I was picking up Spark shares (Telecom, of course) for a $1.90 something after the Xtra mobile "troubles" in 2009. If the price gets cheap from here I might consider reinvesting.

Update:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12269753

Rugby is free today and refunds are also being offered! Ok,ok, hmmm, trying to work through all this: Spark goes from selling phones in malls and hooking up telephones to the extraordinary complex world of content management and sports broadcasting; it pays a huge amount of money for the broadcast rights; hands the product out for free and also gives out refunds as well. Yes, yes, I'm trying to keep up but to be honest I'm struggling. Business at the big end of town is really complicated. What am I missing here? How does this make money?

[RTM]

Back from self exile. My post from February. Wow - how unfortunate. So not only did Spark pay a huge amount for the WRC rights but it turns out they can't actually get the product out to all it's customers. I guess this is bad, right? I'm not all that savvy in the ways of big business so not 100 per cent sure.

Some customers demanding refunds! Again, on the surface, sounds bad. But again, I could be missing nuance.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12269753

I was picking up Spark shares (Telecom, of course) for a $1.90 something after the Xtra mobile "troubles" in 2009. If the price gets cheap from here I might consider reinvesting.

Update:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12269753

Rugby is free today and refunds are also being offered! Ok,ok, hmmm, trying to work through all this: Spark goes from selling phones in malls and hooking up telephones to the extraordinary complex world of content management and sports broadcasting; it pays a huge amount of money for the broadcast rights; hands the product out for free and also gives out refunds as well. Yes, yes, I'm trying to keep up but to be honest I'm struggling. Business at the big end of town is really complicated. What am I missing here? How does this make money?

Nope….don't think you're missing much. I would guess this is far from a money making exercise so far. Presumably TVNZ are charging them a bit to be their backstop as well.
And trying to "blackmail" customers into upgraded packages at the last minute....not a great loyalty generating exercise. I don't hold SPARK....but will watch the SP with interest tomorrow morning.
As an aside...for us...when it works well, the picture, all aspects, is way way better than what we get delivered via Freeview Satellite. Its really good. So I hope they can make it work. Or get half their subscribers over to TV1 so the streamed service works 100% again.

[fungus pudding]

Nope….don't think you're missing much. I would guess this is far from a money making exercise so far. Presumably TVNZ are charging them a bit to be their backstop as well.
And trying to "blackmail" customers into upgraded packages at the last minute....not a great loyalty generating exercise. I don't hold SPARK....but will watch the SP with interest tomorrow morning.
As an aside...for us...when it works well, the picture, all aspects, is way way better than what we get delivered via Freeview Satellite. Its really good. So I hope they can make it work. Or get half their subscribers over to TV1 so the streamed service works 100% again.

I agree that the picture is far better than Satellite - other than a few seconds of picture defragmenting during commentary at half - time. For me it was nowhere near as bad as the odd 'atmospheric conditions' interference with conventional TV viewing. Obviously some viewers did have problems; and even though I didn't, if they want to give me a credit, well - who am I to say no.

[Jay]

Problem is that even a little stuttering ruins the immersion. Instead of concentrating on the game you are wondering if your connection is about to crap out.

What I also find with the football is it uses up a fair bit of your monthly allowance, so if you are not on unlimited (most spark plans are not) then you run out of data mid month.
All part of their cunning plan no doubt. I am on unplan which is progressively more expensive the more data you use, and has a top maximum of 300 gigs. It sounds a lot, but download an xbox game and watch u tube etc plus all the rugby and it will all be gone

Even worse is that if you get near that 300 Two months in a row they actually start phoning you up complaining you are using too much data, even though you are still within the 300 limit. Pathetic

Also on the unplan , think I have only gone as far as about 150GB - did not pay for the rugby, but use the Spark sport for WRC (rally) and F1 in the main so far, but if they start complaining I would say, well hang on I'm paying for your Spark app/plus the Rugby WC as well and surely as fungus mentioned, with all the streaming now they cannot start to limit the download amount if on unlimited or increase it to 500Gb or more before they start complaining.