Spark Sport helps 'modest' number of customers with faulty streams

One customer was upset with the Spark Sport stream. Photo / Supplied

A "modest" number of Spark Sport customers had to be assisted this evening during the coverage of the Rugby World Cup.

Following Japan's shock victory over Ireland, Spark announced it had been a successful night of streaming, apart from a couple of hiccups.

The number of concurrent streams peaked at 96,000 during the match, climbing rapidly as the Japanese took the lead during the second half.

"This is the second-highest audience on Spark Sport, following last Saturday's All Blacks v Springboks match," Spark Sport said.

"Similar to other recent match days, the Spark Sport Care team has been helping a modest level of customers with device and set up issues."

Japan players celebrate their shock win over Ireland. Photo / AP

One disappointed Spark Sport customer told the Herald their stream glitched several times during the Japan-Ireland match.

"After last weekend and Spark promising it was fixed was very disappointing," they said.

"It probably packed up five times during the game, which was incredibly close rugby so it was a real shame we missed it."

Last weekend, rugby pundits gave Spark Sport a yellow card after the All Blacks' opening World Cup match was inundated with issues.

A "small percentage" of customers were faced with constant pixelating, blurring, buffering or lost signal during the match.

Spark Sport was forced to screen the second half of the match on free-to-air TV.

Irish fans react after losing their Rugby World Cup matched against Japan. Photo / AP

At its peak the service reached 132,000 viewers but by the end of the match that number had dropped to 126,000.

On Monday, Spark Sport boss Jeff Latch said the streaming service was not what they were hoping for.

He could not guarantee a faultless run for the remainder of the tournament but said the platform, network and production were tested and had been outstanding.

"We believe we are going to deliver for the next match and the other 41 matches left in the Rugby World Cup," Latch said.

If there were any problems with future streams, he said, the match would be put on to TVNZ's Duke channel within 40 or 45 seconds.

Great work Spark Sports 🤔 stopped working. Don’t try to blame our internet when we have fibre and have had Spark since March for F1 and football pic.twitter.com/0cKOEfHFfU

— Nicky O’Keeffe (@NOK_510) September 28, 2019

Awesome streaming for the last 30 seconds on Spark Sports coverage of #JPNvsIRE #sparksport #RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/TrPTFZUkkt

— CK (@cek0001) September 28, 2019