D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on TVNZ launching pay-TV with exclusive FIFA World Cup rights

TVNZ has opened a new 'game-changer' battleground with Sky TV - it will launch a pay-TV offering, starting with next year’s FIFA World Cup.

TVNZ recently confirmed  it had successfully won the rights to the world’s biggest sports tournament, starting next June in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It confirmed it will screen All Whites matches and other selected games free - but for access to the full schedule of matches, people will need to pay for an event pass on TVNZ+.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Forward with tab bed live with in play there responsibly.
Dusty water Grave, sports talk hosters of US, Hello, Duce four.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Is a perfect cycle, no, because it matches the World
Cup and matches the Olympic Games. It matches all sorts
of World Cups. So from a sports point of view,
four years is comfortable.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
We can build our lives around a lot more. We
can stagger it. We can go New Zealand government elections
must fall halfway between rugby World Cups.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
And then we'll know because that pretty much is more
important than New at election.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, yeah, to some it is. Hey, so what do
you make of TV and Z putting the World Cup
rights the fift of World Cup rights behind the paywall?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Brave lovely, We've got the event pass, which Mike tried
to work out what that is with Jady O'donald's Morning
from but she wouldn't. She wouldn't tell them one hundred
and something but one and forty and thirty hundred and
twenty to watch the whole lot. I thought they might
have split it up. They would have had one pass
to watch the whole lot. The free to wear side

(00:57):
of things, which is the all whites playing, which just
basically the lure to get in there and match passes
or day passes. Yes, yes, I really want to watch
Blah Blair play blah blah blah, and it's going to
cost me five bars. Look.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I actually thought that they might be missing a
trick there as well, But then I thought cut them
some slack because they've never done this before, so perhaps
they don't want to overcomplicate it for themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, I've got Jeff latch On now, he's running zellan
and golf now, but of course he was the Mambard
spark Sport, so yeah, he's got a he'll have a
clue about what the pit falls were, what the Judda
bars are, what they did wrong. I think they were
ahead of their time because at that stage the technology
wasn't there, people weren't used to using that platform. They

(01:41):
whatever could go wrong went wrong, and it was a
seriously big event. So I was asking for trouble.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
They got through.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
So what did they learn out of that? What can
they say to TV and said, hey watch this, But
people are now used to this as an idea. They're
not so resistant to streaming, to climbing on board somewhere else,
to get what they want and with the smart TVs
and the skybox, even someone like me can cloud my
way through it and make it work. Okay, So it's

(02:09):
it's brave and I'm interested if it is something they
capitalize and they move further into it and they become
a bigger player in televised sport if they've got that
inch and that muscle. And I know a lot of
major global organizations love the freedom wear aspect as well. Yeah,
it's god of got that nice balance. So after this,

(02:30):
what do they go for next if this is a success,
and how far that goes? So just going to join
us tonight's talk about it that I'll ask the people
as well if they're resistant after what happened with Spark
because football is not small. I mean you're for Olympics
football and then the Rugby World Cups some way down there.
So let's face let's be honest about it. So it
is a massive punt. I'm interested in the technical judg

(02:52):
of bars too, and what they be looking at because
according to Jody listening to Mike this morning, there they're
ironing some things out, tried a few things. They're looking
at actually at what operates what works. I'm interested in
the over subscribing, whether they can actually handle that. If
there is such an issue that you.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Have so many people jump on that, is that an
issue now or is it not?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
So? Jeff is all over there.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Listen really quickly, how long have you been trying to
get Shane on your show?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Shane Van has been a number of years.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Is a hard bird to catch up.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, he's got media managers all around. He's going in
America and then and thanks very much to Red Bull
and track House Racing for getting it over the line.
How do you arm with him? This morning? He was
charming and wonderful and smiling, even called me Darcy. So
life in America is obviously working really because he's playing

(03:45):
the game and he's on the show tonight.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
And thank you, Darcy. Darcy Watergrave, sports talk host.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
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