*Official* 2022 New Zealand Tour of England, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands

[Shady Slim]

Amazon is like $2/mth tbf

straight into the coffers of jeff bezos, not going to look good on your shadyscore

 

[Daemon]

straight into the coffers of jeff bezos, not going to look good on your shadyscore

This shadyscore sounds an awful lot like the chinese one

 

[SteveNZ]

Since its inception Spark has been nothing but total S H I T for everyone concerned.
Bugger bringing back Buck, bring back sky ffs.

I agree with this, but I also acknowledge that I am not the standard customer anymore.

I like a set top box, affixed to the main TV of my house which is where I watch 95% of my sport. I sit on my couch, I have my remote, and I don't have to touch my phone (I hate phones), or I don't have to buy a new smart TV, and I don't have to worry about my connection dropping out. I hated that my Grandad, god rest his magnificent soul, couldn't watch cricket in his last year.

But ultimately, I dislike Spark because their highlight package is either lazy, or it's completely incompetent. It's pathetic. I watch cricket mainly in the highlights - I have young kids so anything late or during the day generally doesn't cut the mustard. In a 25-minute package, of a seven hour product, I get every squirted or pushed single into the covers - which I couldn't give a **** about. I've never had that from SKY. The lack of replays of reviews, seeing a key moment once without another angle or whatever, further discussion of it, is just unacceptable. I wouldn't mind that, as a session by session quick highlights package...but as the day's wrap, it's hopeless. I've emailed Spark, no reply back. And with respect, I don't believe the poster who says the system works on an algorhythm of crowd noise. Get someone who knows the game to do it, not the work experience boy.

 

[TheBrand]

I agree with this, but I also acknowledge that I am not the standard customer anymore.

I like a set top box, affixed to the main TV of my house which is where I watch 95% of my sport. I sit on my couch, I have my remote, and I don't have to touch my phone (I hate phones), or I don't have to buy a new smart TV, and I don't have to worry about my connection dropping out. I hated that my Grandad, god rest his magnificent soul, couldn't watch cricket in his last year.

But ultimately, I dislike Spark because their highlight package is either lazy, or it's completely incompetent. It's pathetic. I watch cricket mainly in the highlights - I have young kids so anything late or during the day generally doesn't cut the mustard. In a 25-minute package, of a seven hour product, I get every squirted or pushed single into the covers - which I couldn't give a **** about. I've never had that from SKY. The lack of replays of reviews, seeing a key moment once without another angle or whatever, further discussion of it, is just unacceptable. I wouldn't mind that, as a session by session quick highlights package...but as the day's wrap, it's hopeless. I've emailed Spark, no reply back. And with respect, I don't believe the poster who says the system works on an algorhythm of crowd noise. Get someone who knows the game to do it, not the work experience boy.

I had a SKY Box for years but now with a new smart TV and the Spark/SKY apps, I didn't need it anymore. Have had maybe 1 connection issue in the last 12-18 months - maybe I'm one of the lucky ones.

It doesn't just work on crowd noise, but it is the main factor in terms of ranking the highlights which as I've pointed out to my friend who works at Spark is absolutely ridiculous. It's not even the work experience boy, it's literally just AI. I don't know why they just don't get the highlights direct from Sky Sports UK.

 

[TheBrand]

I'm more annoyed at the lack of comms from NZC, Sky and Spark about the upcoming white ball series in Ireland/Scotland/Netherlands. Have asked both to no reply.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

The algorithm thing is hilarious to me. Cricket is structured, there are scorecards which you can scrape for important events. Audio is arguably the worst thing you could use for automatic highlight generation. They've either done it in-house through a guy who has no experience in making models, or they've got a pre-trained model from somewhere that nobody bothers to evaluate properly.

 

[NZTailender]

I had a SKY Box for years but now with a new smart TV and the Spark/SKY apps, I didn't need it anymore. Have had maybe 1 connection issue in the last 12-18 months - maybe I'm one of the lucky ones.

I've always felt like paytv in the fibre broadband age is an island populated almost exclusively by boomers, and this is where spark et Al are missing an opportunity. I know you can't cater to absolutely everyone, but my dad (who is 76) still had a tv from 2007. It produces a picture and players sound, and has a skybox connected to it setup by sky and replaced once when it became to old to function. We bought a Chromecast dongle about 6 years ago because my mum (the more technologically savvy of the two) was watching Netflix on her tablet. 6 months after that we asked how it was going and they said they had no idea how to use it, despite painstakingly showing them how and writing instructions. Most recently, he wanted to watch the Matariki concert live stream which was being live streamed on TVNZ+ at 9pm. For two hours up until 9 he asked about 7 or 8 times what channel was it on because he couldn't see it in the tv guide. Granted his faculties are leaving him but an assumption is made that the population is of a technological literacy and equity (vis a vis smart TVs) so stuff like this isn't an issue. He struggles with the concept of changing inputs to get to the Chromecast, let alone going into an app on his tablet then casting. To most people this stuff is just logical and easy because we learn it as we go, and there's probably not much of a business case to make a product that can technologically act in the old way when, tbf, that generation is on its way out. But it stinks that my dad can't keep up with the cricket like he used to (he has sky primarily for rugby league and watching British dramas). It's simple for him to press a number on a remote and bring up the channel he wants. This could probably be solved, tbh, with a smart tv with a remote that has Netflix, spark sport etc as actual remote buttons, but he has no interest because there's nothing wrong with his current tv.

Anyway, rant over. Spark could probs crack the Boomer market even more if they could bridge that gap but they're probably not interested, and fair enough, because sky had pretty much a stranglehold for ages and treated their customers like chumps.

 

[SteveNZ]

Anyway, rant over. Spark could probs crack the Boomer market even more if they could bridge that gap but they're probably not interested, and fair enough, because sky had pretty much a stranglehold for ages and treated their customers like chumps.

I'm not a patsy for SKY, although full disclosure I did used to do work for them (not work for them, per se but contract to them). But if you talk about SKY treating their customers like chumps, I fully agree - but that was by previous management who a) were dinosaurs and didn't either understand what was coming or were too pig-headed to change and b) were arrogant enough to think their monopoly would last forever. I believe new management are much more 21st century, and customer-focused. Hell, they need to be or they're the next Blockbuster Video.

 

[SteveNZ]

I had a SKY Box for years but now with a new smart TV and the Spark/SKY apps, I didn't need it anymore. Have had maybe 1 connection issue in the last 12-18 months - maybe I'm one of the lucky ones.

It doesn't just work on crowd noise, but it is the main factor in terms of ranking the highlights which as I've pointed out to my friend who works at Spark is absolutely ridiculous. It's not even the work experience boy, it's literally just AI. I don't know why they just don't get the highlights direct from Sky Sports UK.

Yeah, or why can't balls be 'flagged' as they happen? Like if there's a boundary, flag it as a boundary. If there's a single, flag it as low interest (unless it's a dropped chance, something significant etc). I mean hell, you'd actually have to have someone who knows the game operating that, but isnt that the point?

But hell, I guess they know I'll buy Spark next summer anyway because what other choice do I have with the sport I love. But I'll do it begrudgingly and quit the moment that month is over (as I did today)

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

I say we all fundraise to buy NZT's dad a new TV.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Yeah, or why can't balls be 'flagged' as they happen? Like if there's a boundary, flag it as a boundary. If there's a single, flag it as low interest (unless it's a dropped chance, something significant etc). I mean hell, you'd actually have to have someone who knows the game operating that, but isnt that the point?

That means you have to pay a guy to do it.

 

[SteveNZ]

That means you have to pay a guy to do it.

Yeah, I guess. Nice job if you can get it, watching cricket and pressing a couple of buttons. I used to do it for a data capturing service in the NRL, what a mega job that was. Pre-loading at home while getting paid to watch games I would've watched anyway.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, or why can't balls be 'flagged' as they happen? Like if there's a boundary, flag it as a boundary. If there's a single, flag it as low interest (unless it's a dropped chance, something significant etc). I mean hell, you'd actually have to have someone who knows the game operating that, but isnt that the point?

But hell, I guess they know I'll buy Spark next summer anyway because what other choice do I have with the sport I love. But I'll do it begrudgingly and quit the moment that month is over (as I did today)

I mean, I like Spark, and I still quit it the second the test series ended. Am glad that I get the bonus of the first day of the England v India match before my subscription ends.

 

[NZTailender]

I say we all fundraise to buy NZT's dad a new TV.

He would probably be overwhelmed and donate it to charity itbt. My siblings and I have conspired to do this but he gets a bit irate about stuff like that. We bought him a new landline once with an answering machine when mum passed so he could get messages (he's mostly deaf, only puts hearing aids in when other people around) because he relied on mum to answer the phone. It was changed back a month later ?

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Yeah, I guess. Nice job if you can get it, watching cricket and pressing a couple of buttons. I used to do it for a data capturing service in the NRL, what a mega job that was. Pre-loading at home while getting paid to watch games I would've watched anyway.

All that data annotation stuff is being outsourced to somewhere in Latin America for like 2c a click now.

 

[SteveNZ]

I mean, I like Spark, and I still quit it the second the test series ended. Am glad that I get the bonus of the first day of the England v India match before my subscription ends.

Yeah I likely would've too, I just think there might've been a chance at my good will extending to the whole England India Test, or I might not be as annoyed and determined to cancel.

 

[Daemon]

Yeah, or why can't balls be 'flagged' as they happen? Like if there's a boundary, flag it as a boundary. If there's a single, flag it as low interest (unless it's a dropped chance, something significant etc). I mean hell, you'd actually have to have someone who knows the game operating that, but isnt that the point?

But hell, I guess they know I'll buy Spark next summer anyway because what other choice do I have with the sport I love. But I'll do it begrudgingly and quit the moment that month is over (as I did today)

Why don’t they just scrape it off cricinfo. Don’t need a guy.

 

[TheBrand]

I've offered to do it for them (I'm a uni student with a bit of down time) but haven't heard back. The two most watched sports in my household are cricket and Formula 1 so Spark is a no brainer for us. Still have SKY for rugby/league + the odd international cricket (I assume the Windies series in August and Chappell Hadlee in September are going to be on SKY).

 

[Chewie]

The new chromecast with google tv built in was released in NZ recently and would solve the casting to the tv issues because you can just use the android tv app

 

[Athlai]

The new chromecast with google tv built in was released in NZ recently and would solve the casting to the tv issues because you can just use the android tv app

Oh nice, I was wondering how to replace my mums defunct Vodafone tv