Human error is being blamed for Spark Sport's streaming issues during yesterday's Black Sticks hockey match.
The ANZAC Day clash between the Black Sticks Women and Australia was meant to be shown on Spark Sport, but fans weren't able to see the match initially, with the broadcast being "delayed due to technical difficulties", and the Black Sticks having to direct people to their Twitter feed to follow the match.
While the problem was eventually resolved and customers were able to watch, or view the full broadcast on demand later this evening, the technical issues left many fans disgruntled, and questioning Spark's abilities to broadcast the Rugby World Cup later this year.
However, Spark Sport's boss Jeff Latch is playing down the issue, telling Tim Dower human error was at fault and it is an easy fix.
"There was a human error at our platform provider in the US, that lead to the late start of coverage of the New Zealand versus Australia pro series last night."
"There was a scheduling error, so there were no technical issues with the live or on-demand streaming, but there was a human scheduling error made."
Latch apologised to hockey fans, saying, "we are working very hard to make sure it cannot happen again".
He said they acknowledged that they have to do better and are currently in the process of automating their systems.
"We have put around 140 events to air and we have had issues with about three of them so I don't think we have done too bad, but we have to do better."
"The key thing at the moment...is hardening the system so these things can't happen again. And by hardening, they mean automating it out because, at the moment, when you launch these platforms, you have to put some manual processes in place while you're building the platfrom out, so there is more scope for human error."
"The way you get rid of these is you automate and therefore there isn't any human involvement."
Latch also offered reassurances to anyone who isn't sure about purchasing a plan with Spark Sport.
He said they are very confident that by the time they get to the World Cup, they will have any issues "ironed out".
"Get in, buy the Rugby World cup. The reason we are launching the platform now is to iron out any issues that typically platforms have when they launch."
"By the time we get to the Rugby World Cup, we are very confident that the platform will perform perfectly. And I would point out that the platform actually performed perfectly last night, but it was a human error that lead to us being late to get the start of the match."
He said full match coverage is available to view on Spark Sport, including the first quarter which was missed last night.
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