Soccer: TV blackouts have fans pointing at spot

By KATHERINE HOBY and AINSLEY THOMSON

Soccer fans across New Zealand were horrified when just as Italy were about to score against Ecuador in their World Cup match, television screens blacked out for a few vital seconds.

And this was not the first time fans watching World Cup matches had their viewing disrupted by short blackouts.

Johnno Hunter, originally from England, said most games he had watched at bars, or at a friend's house, had been interrupted by at least one screen blackout of about five seconds.

Sky Television spokeswoman Andrea Rush said there was a problem with the coverage.

She said Sky was getting a feed from a TVNZ decoder, which was not completely compatible with the encoder encrypting and sending the coverage from Korea and Japan.

"This is unfortunate and is resulting in a black few seconds in most games for viewers."

Ms Rush said the problem was nationwide, and was also being experienced internationally as TVNZ's satellite service was contracted to provide the feed for other countries such as Australia and South Africa.

The problems were being experienced on both Sky Sport and Sky Digital channel 16.

TVNZ spokesman Glen Sowry said the host broadcaster's encoder in Korea was not compatible with the decoder at TVNZ. This problem was causing blackouts in the coverage every 12 to 15 minutes.

Mr Sowry said they had technicians working to fix the problem and they hoped to have it corrected in 24 to 48 hours.

nzherald.co.nz/fifaworldcup

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