Spark stock recovers after early morning drop

Spark's bad weekend stretched into early morning trading, with the company's stock price dropping 8 cents (1.84 per cent) to $4.27 as soon as the market opened.

The company's share price has since recovered, lifting 6 cents higher than it was on Friday afternoon.

In a note sent out this morning, Craigs Investment Partners said: "It's hard to think of a way to generate more negative press than failing to provide a good experience for an All Black test match".

The investment bank indicated that this could play into the hands of Spark's sport-streaming competitors, Sky TV, whose shares were up 1.75 per cent to $1.16 in early trading.

Over the weekend, Spark was forced to screen the second half of the match between South Africa and the All Blacks on free-to-air TV after many customers faced constant pixelating, blurring, buffering or complete loss of signal.

Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters yesterday vowed the Government would get to the bottom of the issue, labelling the incident an "abject disaster".

Following the glitchy match, Spark Sport worked overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning in an attempt to resolve the video stream problem.

This morning, Spark Sport boss Jeff Latch told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that he was confident the company would be able to deliver the remaining matches glitch-free.

He could not guarantee the rest of the tournament would not be faultless with Spark's streaming service, but could guarantee the platform, network and production has tested well and been outstanding.

If there were any problems, he said, the match would be put on to Television New Zealand's Duke channel within 40 or 45 seconds.