English Premier League on SkyTV

Just signed up with Spark after a few years of not bothering with Bein/Sky.  Really pleased with what I've seen so far.  Watched the build up show and F1 Grand Prix last night/this morning.  It never buffered once and the picture was clear the whole time.  This was just on my computer - didn't cast it to a TV etc.  

I think one of the friendly games that they have on there was available to watch on demand about 10mins after the game finished (but I wasn't paying the closest of attention so might have that wrong).  

Really looking forward to the season starting now. 

I've not actually tested, but because of the functionality you mentioned, they should be available instantly. ("Technically, start from beginning is the same as on demand").

Spark have been quite good at listening to feedback, so I'm sure this sort of thing will be a priority.

Yea great point 20 legend, I hope that is the case!

Signing up for my 7 day Spark trial tonight and then all going well I'll join after that. Really happy with the pricing of $19.99 per month. I'd pay that for the PL alone and then you get magazine shows and other sports on top of that. 

Any news on who's doing free-to-air highlights this year?

Here's a question not sure if it has been covered, but does Spark have Live catch up? As in like the old Premier League Pass where you could get up for a 4am game at 5am and watch from the beginning?

Yep. When you first select a game that's already live you can select whether you want to start from the start of watch live.

What I want to know about that functionality, is if you go to watch it right after it has finished, will it be there i.e. instantly available on demand? As someone else has said, logically it seems like it would be, but I really want to confirm this before Sunday night. Hopefully I will remember to test this on Sat morning or Sat night. I will report back if I do. 

I've been watching a bit of the motorsport and the replay service has been appearing fairly quick - not instantly but within 10-20mins I think (wasn't really paying attention to it but I did notice a F2 race replay come up when I was waiting for the final F1 practice session).  Can test with the RS vs Norwich game on Sat morning.

There is a Kodi plugin for spark sport available if that's your sort of.thing. seems to work well.

What happens when you’re watching a bit delayed and the live feed finishes? Does that mean it cuts out then you then have to wait the 10-20mins until you can commence watching again or can you continue to watch until the end? 

Hmmm - not sure.  I've only watched 'from live' so far.  I have paused the live stuff & then carried on a bit later and there was no cut-out, but not sure if it was paused longer than 10-20 mins.  

The PL match pack for week 1 is on tomorrow morning, will get up a bit early and see if I can test a couple of things.

Presumably Duke/TVNZ, given the whole Sky-Spark rights turf war. But you think they'd have announced it by now so perhaps they've not bothered.

The Norwich game finished around 9am and is up for viewing as a replay now - so about 15mins or so (might have been a bit quicker than that).

Gutted that EPL is no longer on Bein in NZ. Seems a massive step backwards to no longer have punditry/analysis before and after games.

How did it work for anyone who watched this morning? Seeing on Facebook that it was a mess for a lot of people.

Yeah, very disappointed to see that . Really enjoyed the ex pro’s analysing the game, including at half time . 

Also loved the Football Today show that had Dion Dublin and Don Hutchinson reviewing the weekends games. Looks like that’s no longer available. 

Great to be able to watch the EPL, but it does feel an inferior package to BeIN at this stage . 

Yep, sharke so far. Not impressed at all.

it’s weird as I think they would have access to the premier league tv channel much like bein had, they’ve managed to put up all the little videos that usually run during the ads on that channel. I just don’t see why they can’t put a stream up of the channel. I’m guessing on the goal rush feed tomorrow morning they will have the half time studio pundits on just like goal rush last year.

Have asked on Twitter if they have any plans to show the channel with pre/post match studio shows, but no answer yet.

Only Telecon,...errr Spark, could take a great product and fudge it over completely. Congratulations.

everyone asking about the pre and post match studio analysis is just getting a copy paste answer, real disappointing. 

I woke up at 6.30 and figured the villa/spurs game would have just finished, so checked the app, and it was available on demand. That musta been within about 10mins so thats really good. Hopefully it is consistent thru the season.

Last night's City vs West Ham was a bit of a mare. Picture and audio kept scrambling, though it didn't feel like bad server/internet/lag. Saw on twitter this morning that their inbound satellite was fudgeed from the weather, and apparently they swapped for later games. Seems like some bad luck.

Also I noticed that there was a Premier League goal rush feed last night. I wonder if that feed will have the half time show?

Yeah seeing on Facebook that it was a bit of a shambles again. Will have my first try for our game tomorrow.

The footage they have shown on the sport news on TV1 shows a very debateable quality of footage. Is that them or what every one is experiencing? I've seen better quality on Youtube.

used it for the first time last night, up with a newborn baby so watched Leicester vs Wolves. Good picture quality, everything worked like it should. No complaints except for the rather shark game I happened to watch. One question though, does anyone know if theres a way you can download content to your phone to watch later so you don't have to chew up mobile data?

I asked someone about offline content recently and was told it's not on the roadmap currently for mobile apps to offline content. Unsure if a licensing issue or not.

Watched United-Chelsea live this morning (what a game by the way) and was extremely happy with the Spark Sport quality. Was running through laptop onto TV through HDMI cord. Lost the signal on about the 70 minute mark but it came back after about 20 seconds. No issues with buffering or the quality slipping.

I got up for the Man United vs Chelsea game at 5:30 but the game didn't pop up for replay until about 5:45ish, so not too bad all.

Used the app and chromecast and the quality was excellent, no issues apart from as above the brief signal loss at about 70m, which I was able to skip through as I was watching delayed.

Watching via the app on my Panasonic and it was flawless. Only have ADSL too so that's a good sign.

stink

Hugely mixed reviews on the service from Spark. Mine was absolutely spot on, no issues whatsoever.

Great first weekend performance for me personally. Watched Liverpool/Norwich and Newcastle/Arsenal both live, and it was flawless. The first time with the smart tv app, the 2nd time casted from phone. Both equally good.

All my watching was done directly on the iPhone app or Apple TV, both very good. 

I subscribe to the Optus Sport service which offers EPL and Champs league and i watched Spurs v Villa on the weekend and they carry the pre-match, half-time and full-time analysis, so have to assume Spark chose a cheaper option when purchasing the rights. Otherwise why wouldn't you have them...

Swings and roundabouts. Have no interest in pre/post game coverage, prefer it to be lower cost. Keep punditry to podcasts

I'm the same, i get annoyed that replays have the halftime show,  but have seen many complain about it

Is it as stuttery on the stream as it comes across on the news for anyone that has seen both?  It would be almost unwatchable if what I have seen on prime news is what you are getting for 90 minutes.

Tv channel owned by sky selling the idea that streaming sucks? Well I never. There is a 7 day free trial. Suggest you just give it a go.

In terms of non-game content, the only stuff I used to be interested in was game highlights, which is better with Spark. They give the short highlights like Bein did, but they also give an extended highlight package now which I like. 

I have the free data hour thing with 2 Degrees so yesterday morn I switched that on for my train ride and watched all the highlights, it was fantastic.

I do wish we could download for on-demand though.