In a brutal Facebook post last night, the 17-cap wing called Spark an "arrogant" company pushing an "inferior product". Photo / File
Former All Black and Auckland Blues star Craig Innes has packed down with those criticising Spark Sport on social media.
In a brutal Facebook post last night, the 17-cap wing called Spark an "arrogant" company pushing an "inferior product."
"Anyone else have buffering issues watching the Aust v Wales game tonight?" he asked.
"I pretty much missed most of the second half with buffering and picture freeze.
"Even trying to watch on my phone was problematic!"
Spark conceded two system-wide issues last night.
One was a problem with the Australia-Wales stream, which was pinned on production partner TVNZ.
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The other was a "This event has ended" message slapped onscreen 15 minutes before the Uruguay-Georgia matched finished - which Spark blamed on unexpectedly long water breaks.
Video problems like those suffered by Innes were more scattershot, with Spark's social media team advising individuals affected to do a "hard reset" of their device or Smart TV by unplugging from the wall before a restart.
Innes continued on Facebook:
"I've got no interest in slagging off @SparkSports for the sake of it but this is the RWC and it would appear they have peddled to the NZ sporting public an inferior product.
"The arrogance to do so is astounding given there must have been internal fear and knowledge that things could potentially turn to shit??
"Last thing anyone in this of all countries should have to worry about is the quality of RWC coverage!!
"First world problem for sure but Interested to know if I was the only one to miss what was apparently a classic 40 min of footy."
A number of Innes' Facebook friends also laid into Spark Sport.
Referring to Inness - these days global director of player management company Esportif - by his nickname, one wrote: "Mine was frustrating, too, Postie. I probably only lost seven to eight minutes when it froze, but if those eight minutes happen to coincide with a crucial play, I'll be fuming. Saturday night we had to put up with buffering and poor picture quality and tonight freezing completely."
Another said, "Me too, Craig."
And a third - living in Te Aroha - complained, "We can't even get the Spark Sport package (same as others in Te Kuiti or Taumarunui) because our internet connection is too slow. I'm seething."
On the day the RWC kicked off, Spark - which had already conceded around 40,000 rural homes did not good enough broadband to stream the World Cup games - sent letters to hundreds of provincial town customers who had bought Spark Sport, telling them they had to upgrade their connections.
Halfway through the All Blacks-Springbok clash on the second day of the tournament, Spark made the decision to enable its fallback plan and simulcast on TVNZ's Duke channel.
It also simulcast the following day's games before returning to streaming only.
Asked by the Herald earlier today if those unhappy with Australia-Wales or Uruguay-Georgia could get refunds, a Spark Sport spokeswoman said:
"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.
That is, people who are willing to jump through the hoops will receive between $9.00 and $13.50, depending on when you bought your pass.
There is also a full refund option, but only if people surrender access to the remaining games.
A Spark statement earlier acknowledged the audio problem but said that overall, "The Spark Sport platform worked well, as did the New Zealand broadband network.
Its Sunday night audience peaked at 115,000 streams for the Australia vs Wales game, "making it the second-highest audience since the All Blacks vs Springboks match," Spark said.
The All Blacks-South Africa game attracted a peak 132,000 streams before easing back to 126,000 after the simulcast began on Duke.
Quoting Nielsen stats, TVNZ said 927,000 watched its coverage of the All Blacks' first game, which was a mix of a one-hour delay on TVNZ 1 and the stop-gap live coverage of the second half on its Duke channel.
The telco says the service will quickly expand over 2025.