The Rugby World Cup in Japan next year will be screened here by TVNZ and telco Spark. For the first time, fans who want every game live will have to pay to watch online. Is it a significant moment for the way we watch our sport?
The Webb Ellis trophy Photo: Supplied: RWC
On the face of it, this morning’s news was a replay of February 2015 when Sky TV announced it had snagged the broadcast rights to what it called “the biggest prize in world rugby” - RWC 2015 in England.
“SKY Sport will once again be the place for Kiwis to watch every match LIVE,” it said with emphatic capitals.
Sky said some games would be shown free-to-air on its channel Prime, but it hadn’t worked out which ones and - crucially - whether any All Blacks games would be screened live for free.
This time round it is Spark declaring it will “bring the coverage to New Zealanders” with free-to-air partner TVNZ. But the cost of that - and the seven games promised free-to-air by TVNZ - are not yet settled.
When pressed, Spark’s boss Simon Moutter said the cost of watching the lot online would be about $100. Spark would offer both free and paid content and non-Spark customers would not be shut out, he added.
Sky TV’s customers and investors had already digested the unpleasant news last month that it had been outbid. Critics called it another nail on the company’s coffin and further evidence that online competitors are eating away at the former monopoly’s dominance.
Sky has said a six-week one-off tournament like the RWC is not crucial to its business, unlike the six-to-eight month season of test match and Super rugby. Sky’s outgoing boss John Fellet recently signalled the company would not let those rights go easily when they’re up for grabs again in 2020.
And this is not the first time Sky has been outbid.
In 2014, online operator Coliseum wrested the rights for English football from Sky and offered them online to subscribers. Later it added golf and rugby from France which had also previously been on Sky - and the service migrated to Spark’s online service Lightbox.
But the cost was too great and within three years Sky - feeling vindicated, no doubt - had struck new deals for all that content.
Spark’s Simon Moutter told NBR the rights are expensive and “the vast bulk” of the revenue has to be earned from paid subscriptions. If not enough customers take up the offer, it may not be repeated.
But Spark's approach this time is a clear challenge to the business model of Sky.
Spark intends to offer pricing options to suit people’s differing preferences and budgets, rather than the “all or nothing bundle that has been the approach for previous Rugby World Cups,” said Simon Moutter.
While media coverage today has focused on coverage of the upcoming World Cup in Japan, Spark has also secured rights the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021, the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 and World Rugby Under-20 Championships in 2018 and 2019.
These are also events Sky customers would have expected to see in return for their subscriptions.
Some rural customers may not be able to stream the games, but Chorus says by the time the Rugby World Cup kicks off the first phase of the nationwide UFB fibre roll out will be complete and "at least 80 percent of the population will have the ability to connect."
Most of the remainder will either have access to Rural Broadband Initiative wireless towers or copper-fed VDSL connections. Some will be covered by wireless internet service providers, Chorus says.
Interviewed on Radio New Zealand, Moutter says the price will be lower than most people would expect. He says a tournament pass would cost somewhere in the region of $100. It will also be possible to subscribe to watch individual games.
Aside from the problem for patchy broadband in parts of the country, another problem for Spark is that New Zealanders have had the RWC free-to-air in the past.
The first Rugby World Cup in 1987 was played here, and screened here by TVNZ.
No surprise there. There was no other TV broadcaster in the land.
The 2001, 2003 and 2007 tournaments were all screened free-to-air too.
Four TV broadcasters carved up the rights in a messy arrangement part-funded from the public purse when the tournament returned to New Zealand in 2011, to ensure no-one missed out on what was deemed an event of national significance.
Several pundits reckon RWC 2019 will be a watershed moment when viewers ‘flick the switch’ from watching on TV - and paying Sky if necessary - to finally getting comfortable with the idea of streaming their sport online.
People who have so far resisted the idea, or lacked the gear or the understanding, may finally be persuaded to start streaming.
But this will depend on the amount they are expected to pay and how much of the most attractive action will also be available on free-to-air TV.
