Editorial: Would rugby online be just as good?

A live broadcast set in the Sky TV building, Mt Wellington. Photo / Sarah Ivey

New Zealand's provider of subscription television, Sky, has never been exactly close to the country's heart. Many still resist, and even resent, the need to pay for coverage of their favourite sports, especially rugby.

The quality of that coverage goes unappreciated until the fan is obliged to endure the advertising interruptions of a game shown free-to-air, or sees the variable picture quality of some of the live-streaming of rugby online.

Sky no longer faces much risk that rugby will be requisitioned by politicians for free transmission but its future is now seriously threatened by the internet.

The online global shopping predator, Amazon, is said to be preparing to bid for the rights to screen Sanzar rugby from 2021.

It's interest in televised sport has become evident with it recent purchases of rights to some American football games this year and the UK rights to professional men's tennis tournaments, outbidding Sky UK.

Amazon is also rumoured to be preparing a bid for football's English Premier League, the value of which would surely dwarf all other sporting contests in the world.

But the fact that Sanzar rugby is also in Amazon's sights speaks volumes for the success of the All Blacks. With due respect to the Springboks, Wallabies and Pumas, they probably do not have quite the same cachet outside the game.

NZ Rugby is reaping the rewards of the brand All Blacks, built on a record of success that has made the All Blacks image synonymous with rugby and known beyond the game's international audience.

The All Blacks' constant effort to live up to their reputation by not just winning but making rugby the best spectacle it can be, deserves all the wealth they are bringing to the New Zealand game through sponsorship and television rights.

Sky Network Television has provided a good proportion of that income ever since rugby went professional two decades ago.

It has been a mutually beneficial association. Rugby is the main reason main reason many New Zealanders subscribe to Sky, though the rest of its package of international news networks, movies and documentary channels is good value too.

If Sky loses the rights to rugby, the survival of the whole subscription service will be in question.

Industry analysts told the Weekend Herald Sky would face an "existential" challenge. According to one, the company had used rugby as "anchor content in recent years to sustain heavy price increases".

Those price increases may have cost Sky the good will of many of its loyal customers who note the deals often offered to new subscribers.

But subscription television was never likely to be popular with generations who had grown up receiving TV for free. If Amazon's likely bid succeeds, the older generation will have to join the young in finding its entertainment online.

It will hope the picture is as good, the camera handlers as familiar with the game, and the commentary teams make as much use of former All Blacks. Sky has given good service with a Kiwi flavour and it would be a shame to lose it.