Spark Sport is investigating why its international streaming feed was disrupted midway through the All Blacks' epic Rugby World Cup encounter, forcing it to screen the game live on free-to-air TVNZ.

The telecoms giant says the issues - including buffering and pixelated images for some customers - was not caused by New Zealand's broadband capacity.

Talking to Radio Sport this morning, Spark Sport spokesman Andrew Pirie described last night's issues as "a failure on our part".

In a statement early on Sunday, Spark said: "The root cause of the video streaming issue is still being investigated with our international streaming partners. However, we can confirm that the issue was not related to New Zealand broadband capacity, with the demand for this game well within our operating thresholds. It was not confined to customers of any particular broadband provider."

The match was initially delayed by an hour for free-to-air viewers on TVNZ but the second half was aired live after Spark said they were "uncomfortable" with the quality of the streams that some customers were receiving.

"Midway through the first half we identified that the quality of the video stream was fluctuating for some customers," the company said in a statement.

"This meant that customers experienced brief, intermittent periods of reduced video quality such as pixilation and buffering.

"We were uncomfortable at the quality of the experience our customers were getting and, as we always said we would, we moved quickly to provide them with an alternative means of watching the match. We had prior established procedures with our partner TVNZ to enable live, free-to-air coverage at short notice."

The game, which the All Blacks won 23-13, saw a maximum of 132,000 people streaming via the service, and while still uncertain of the cause of the problem, Spark assured their customers it wasn't an issue related to New Zealand broadband.

"There were not the same video quality problems during the day's two earlier matches. Although some customers needed help from our care teams at times during the day, for the most part these related to isolated device issues and in-home set up."

• Some disappointed with Spark Sport's Cup coverage

Spark CEO Jolie Hodson said, "We are very disappointed that some New Zealanders did not get the experience they deserved last night during such an important match. Making a quick decision to give them an alternative means to watch the All Blacks was the right thing to do. We apologise to all impacted customers and we will be working with our partners to rectify what happened and ensure the rest of the tournament goes well."

Hodson also tweeted her disappointment.

We’ve identified a small % of customers on certain devices are experiencing intermittent issues with the video quality. In the interests of giving everyone a good experience we are simulcasting the second half on TVNZ Duke. Spark sport will keep streaming for the majority

— Jolie Hodson (@jolie_hodson) September 21, 2019

Disappointing after a night of good coverage but it’s the right thing to do for those impacted customers

— Jolie Hodson (@jolie_hodson) September 21, 2019

 

The All Blacks beat South Africa 23-13.

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