The first 20 minutes of the coverage (featuring that opener) only aired on Spark Sport. By contrast, TVNZ’s simulcast began at the same time the world feed seemingly began (6:50pm NZT). That’s interesting because when Sky previously had the rights, the world feed seemed to encompass their entire coverage from start to finish. Seems like Spark has decided to revert to the usual procedure for the world feed (ie; only beginning just before the day’s play) which is a shame because I prefer watching the ‘full’ coverage.
Speaking of the Spark/TVNZ simulcast, found it interesting last night that there wasn’t any mention of/overtures to TVNZ viewers. While I understand it’s a Spark Sports production, was surprised that the commentators didn’t do something along the lines of saying “To viewers watching tonight’s game on TVNZ, the remaining 2 games of this international T20 series between the West Indies & New Zealand will exclusively air on Spark Sport. To find out more about subscribing, go to the Spark Sport website.” in order to push Spark Sport subscriptions. Also thought it might have be a jointly-branded broadcast considering that’s what happened when they aired the Rugby World Cup last year