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With three months to go until the Rugby World Cup 2019 kicks off in Japan, Spark Sport is well on track to deliver all 48 matches live and on demand.
Jeff Latch, Head of Spark Sport, says, “Spark Sport is performing well. Customers are streaming successfully, and more and more people are joining Spark Sport every day, either by purchasing a Rugby World Cup Tournament Pass, or by signing up to the monthly Spark Sport subscription.
“We’ve achieved a huge amount since we launched back in March. Since then, the team has rapidly improved Spark Sport’s functionality through a period of intense development and system improvement. Customers can see this in the improved user experience, and the ‘bugs’ that are a normal part of deploying a new piece of software are rapidly disappearing.”
Getting Spark Sport ready for Rugby World Cup 2019
Spark Sport has prepared for Rugby World Cup 2019 in three phases.
The objective of the first phase, which ran up until March 2019, was to get Spark Sport to market with a solid product that we were happy to put in front of customers. During this phase, the team were focused on delivering core platform capability, creating the core aspects of the user experience, launching the initial range of apps and standing up our initial operational model.
Once Spark Sport went live, the team entered the post-launch phase, which is running from April to mid-July. The focus for this period has been on the delivery of critical post-go live bug fixes, adding additional functionality, launching the app on a wider range of devices and putting the RWC Tournament Pass on sale. This phase finishes when the platform exits ‘beta’, which indicates that the platform is functionally ready to deliver the RWC.
Spark Sport will then enter the final phase, RWC Preparation. This phase is all about stabilising and strengthening the platform for Rugby World Cup 2019. The focus will be on process automation, operational readiness – including capacity and performance testing, and finally, change lock down to avoid any unnecessary changes to the platform. Apps for final devices will also be made available.
Spark Sport is performing well
During the time Spark Sport has been operating, the platform technology performance has been superb.
Spark Sport’s live event performance has rapidly improved over the three months it has been up and running (March – 94.5%; April – 98.5%; May – 99.9%). Of the more than 300 sporting events that have now been delivered, all but five have run smoothly. The small number of early issues experienced were production and process issues rather than technical issues. Plus, Spark Sport has streamed nearly 10,000 hours of sports channel content (NBA TV, Manchester United TV, EDGE TV).
Latch comments, “The last three months have given us the opportunity to hone our event operation skills. We’ve already shown over 300 events on the platform which has allowed us to refine our processes and get the team firing on all cylinders. We’re in the process of automating much of our event operations, which also helps to minimise the risks of human error.
“Although we don’t want customers to experience any hiccups at all, the minor issues that have occurred during these first two phases are not surprising when considered as part of our phased rollout.”
Getting New Zealanders match fit for streaming
With three months to go, the Spark Sport team’s focus is now on those New Zealanders who want to watch Rugby World Cup 2019 live – but still need to get themselves set up to stream for the first time.
Latch says lots of New Zealanders have already purchased their Tournament Pass, but many rugby fans still need to get prepared for kick off. “We’re not concerned about those people who already stream regularly: it’s easy for regular streamers to get set up with Spark Sport. But we do want to encourage those who are not familiar with streaming services to get set up now.
“We want to be very clear that people shouldn’t wait until the tournament starts, as it’ll be a lot more difficult to help them at that stage.
“To incentivise people to get ready early, we included some of the best matches from previous Rugby World Cups in the Tournament Pass – these are available as soon as you have purchased a pass.”
People unfamiliar with streaming who want to watch Rugby World Cup 2019 on Spark Sport should:
The key things for people new to streaming to remember are:
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