It was confirmed on Thursday (October 10) that New Zealand Cricket and Spark Sport, which has a streaming service, have signed a six-year broadcast deal. The deal brings an end to the Sky-NZC relationship that has been in place since 1995. Till mid-2020, Sky, however, holds the rights for all domestic cricket.
Men’s and women’s internationals will be added by Spark, along with T20 Super Smash and the domestic one-day cup final. “This is a deal which future-proofs the whole of cricket in New Zealand,” David white, the NCZ CEO, said. “The future is Live streaming. To watch live the viewers are allowed to free themselves from fixed linear schedules, delayed, highlighted or clipped content and on a wide range of devices when and where they choose.”
“Provided by TVNZ together with the free-to-air component, this accords means before will be broadcast live than ever more cricket games. It’s time that we are making this move now, at a time when more New Zealanders consume their sports content via digital devices than ever- and especially young Kiwis.”
However, it is not curtains for Sky. In 2021-22 and 2022-23, they will still be broadcasting the Indian Premier League and New Zealand’s Indian tour of 2021-22 and 2022-23.
They still have the rights for all the cricket matches that will be played in Australia and for New Zealand’s tour of Australia in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
