'Great viewing experience': Spark on ABs match

Spark Sport is facing another round of complaints of poor performance after the All Blacks' 63-0 demolition of Canada last night.

However, the telco says it had no system-wide issues with the game.

"Last night was very quiet for the Spark care team. We saw lower numbers of people contacting customer care than we had expected, relative to the number of people watching the match," a spokeswoman said.

"Key performance measures tracked well and the vast majority of customers had a great viewing experience. There were no system-wide, device or service-specific issues last night."

Viewers have contacted the Herald and taken to social media to vent their frustration over a broadcast that was described as "super laggy", with others taking the broadcaster to task for audio issues including a "buzzing noise".

One customer wrote on Twitter: "Sigh. Still stuttering every 2 or 3 seconds."

Another described issues which saw the commentary running at normal speed while the picture slowed to slow motion.

Spark Sport confirmed yesterday that they are offering additional "customer care measures" in a bid to tackle ongoing streaming issues during the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

However, the telco-turned-sports-streamer has rubbished social media claims that it would be offering Google Chromecast and Apple TV devices to select customers.

According to a statement, some customers would receive Freeview SmartVU devices and home visits to troubleshoot their streaming complications.

Spark Sport has had a rocky start to the World Cup with complaints over the quality of the streaming continuing to flood in.

On Monday the Commerce Commission said it had received 13 complaints since the All Blacks match against South Africa on Saturday, September 21.

The commission had received six further complaints since then.

Before last night, the most recent issues came during Wales' victory over Australia on Sunday night, which was slammed by thousands of customers online after problems including multiple commentaries running simultaneously, delayed audio, and a spell where pictures were seemingly lost all impacted their broadcast.

The biggest issues had struck during the All Blacks' first game against the Springboks, where streaming problems saw the game put on to free-to-air channel Duke. However, the multiple complaints in the Welsh win on Sunday night caused just as many complaints from customers on social media.

After the game, Spark explained the blunders, pushing the blame for the early audio problems on to TVNZ, though not explaining the issues later in the game.

"As previously commented on by TVNZ, at the beginning of the Australia vs Wales game there were some production issues with the audio feed from TVNZ during the first few minutes of the match," the company said in a statement.

"However these issues were quickly resolved."

Asked if those unhappy with Australia-Wales or Uruguay-Georgia could get refunds, a Spark Sport spokeswoman told the Herald: "In line with our standard refund policy, customers who feel they have had a poor experience with Spark Sport can contact us. We will work through their issue with them and in some cases provide them with a partial refund."

Spark has been offering 15 per cent refunds on Tournament Pass for those who had a poor experience with an individual game, plus an option for a full refund.

 

Comments

Please put everything on SKY TV

Face it, we haven't entirely mastered tech, eg the census.

Persevering with cyber is contra indicated for the big jobs.

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