August 26, 2025 • 11 mins
The FIFA World Cup broadcast rights are on the move.
TVNZ have picked up the exclusive rights for the 2026 edition of the tournament, with All Whites matches and select fixtures free to air.
However, in order to watch all 104 games across the tournament, consumers will need to purchase an event pass on TVNZ+, a first-time offer for the broadcaster.
D'Arcy spoke to current NZ Golf CEO and former Spark Sport CEO Jeff Latch to ask if TVNZ can make this work, what this could mean for the future of TVNZ and what he thinks they may have paid for these rights.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Jeff Latch joins us now. He's currently the Golf in
Z CEO, but he was the boss of Spark Sport
way back in the day when Spark managed to basically
hijack the hosting rights for the Rugby World Cup. It
was quite a shock. It was quite a slap in
the face, and it didn't start well. It wobbled throughout
(00:34):
the tournament. So I thought i'd get him on the blow.
I'd have a yarn about what he learned, what he meant.
How good of a move is this from TV and
Z remembering they have the exclusive rights for the twenty
twenty six edition, all whites matches and some selected fixtures
will be free to air, But if you want to
(00:55):
watch all one hundred and four games right across the tournament,
you're going to need to buy an event pass on
TV and Z Plus. It's the first time that broadcaster
has had a subscription process. So what do we need
to know? Let's find out from Jeff Latch, who's done
it all before. He joins us now. Gooday, Jeff, Ja Das,
(01:15):
how are you some good things, Jeff, TV and Z
climbed into big sports streaming. This is not little people,
this is enormous. You dealt with the problem to Spark
when you were streaming the Rugby World Cup. Have TV
and Z got the ability to deal with this? Can
they make this work?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It should be reasonably simple for TV and Z to
do this. I think if you think about what's happened
over the last sort of five or six years, globally,
the quality of digital technology and particularly streaming technology is
advanced significantly, right and so.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
And if you look at TV and Z plus, it's
been around for many, many years now.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I can remember I was at TV and Z when
we launched that back in the day. Yeah, it's a
proven service already, so they're not from scratch there, actually
got multiple years under their belt already in the streaming business.
So no, I think for TV and Z this is
absolutely achievable.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'll call Spark the gorse cutter because you rolled on
in there and things are a little unstable at the time.
You experienced a number of troubles on as I was
reporting on it, taking talk back on it, but you
managed to clear that ground, get rid of that now
it's probably a slightly easier path. Is that a fair
thing to say about Spark? About what you did? You
took it away from Sky, you started something new.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I think it is fair to say.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I think we broke quite a lot of new ground,
particularly with the Rugby World Cup package and how we
went out and sold that and how I was actually
received in New Zealand. And yes we had that an
unfortunate mistake with the South Africa game which has haunted
me ever since. But yeah, I think in total, Spark
(03:00):
broke a whole lot of boundaries in the New Zealand
market and really changed things up and probably set the
scene for what we see happening with TVNZ.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Now, did it strike you as a surprise that tv
and Z would haul them with not just sport but
the biggest tournament on the planet by some stretch?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
No, not really, because if you're if you think TVNZ's
coming from a free to wear base into pay and
so the events that are actually really critically important for
a free to wear player are the big global competitions,
So people World Cup in the summer Olympics, of the
two biggest by a country mile, they both deliver big
(03:39):
mass audiences globally five billion for each really, and so
they are the best things if you're a free towre
and going into pay it means that they put out
to the biggest audience possible on free to wear some
of the key matches, and then because this is going
to be a forty eighteen tournament for the first time,
(04:00):
north of one hundred matches, there's so much content that
it actually lends itself for being packaged up. So no,
I think, I think for a free to wear, these
big events are actually really really their sweet spot, and
therefore this is a really good fit for a TV
and Z partnership wise.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I don't know how much they paid. They won't tell us,
but it must have been a substantial amount, but it
would have just been a case of buying through. It
would have been a case because I'm presuming that internationally
major global sports now they look at this, they need
that combination of pay per view and free to hear
and the weight of numbers behind that. That's really important
this day and age.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
It is critical, but it's also kind of back to
the future because if you remember, TV and Z used
to partner with Sky for multiple fef of World Cups.
I know because I was at TV and Z and
did the deals with Sky and so this is different,
but it's also similar because you had to have Sky
to get all of the fixtures in the FIFA World Cup.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And you could watch the big matches live on TV
and Z on TV and Z one.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So this is Yes, it's different, but it's also in
some ways reasonably similar, with a bundle of matches that
will go out free and live, and then a really
big bundle of matches that are going to be available
for the sound of things as a pay package.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Jeff, they've got two things. They've got an event pass
and then they've got the free to wear side of things.
They don't want to deviate too much. Highlight the idea
of maybe picking up a weekly pass or a daily
pass or a game pass. But simplicity is possibly the
rule here. You can pay one fee, have everything, or
you can watch the Kiwi teams play on free Tooware
(05:42):
is that the sensible route?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think it is the sensible route. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
They may decide closer to the FIFA World Cup that
they want to do something different, but certainly we found
with the Rugby World Cup that a package that included
all of the matches, was incredibly popular and there was
a huge appetite for it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
What does this say about the future of TV and
Z and their regression in that sports space? Should Sky?
Should other platforms be concerned about this move? Well?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I think if you look at the bundle of rights
that Sky controlled, they're still in an incredibly strong position.
And remember that the biggest drivers for a pay centric
business like Sky is the long running competitions, So things
like rugby and the NRL and Premier League and F
(06:35):
one those are the properties that really drive pay centric
businesses more than one off big events because you want
people to come in and subscribe and stay for the year,
and so that longevity and spread is actually really important.
And obviously Sky have got a pretty terrific portfolio of
long running sporting competitions.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
You know, most of the world's best are sitting with Sky.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
How much would this have cost them? You got any
idea ballpark figure jets?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, Dassi, I really don't know, but I wouldn't be
surprised if it's well north of ten million US. Sports
rights globally and in New Zealand are not cheap, you know,
I mean, we all know that rugby last time round
went for what north of five hundred million. The cricket
rights are actually really valuable and they go for a
(07:25):
lot of money as well as does the NRL, and
so there's a lot of money tied up in sports rocks.
Big events typically for the New Zealand territory.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Will go for north of US ten million.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
How do I call that back?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Well, if you crunch the numbers for tvnzs depending on
what they charge for the package of say all matches,
if that's what they're doing, if they sell one hundred
thousand of those, you guys, everyone can do the mass,
that's a pretty big number. And then on top of
that they will get huge audiences for the big live
matches on TVNZ one and so the value for sponsorship
(08:02):
and advertising within those fixtures will be significant as well well.
So they're going to have some really big revenue opportunities.
I would have thought around a property like this, and
once again it's because it's free to wear. As a proposition,
the bigger the audience you can deliver in that sense,
the more TV and Z will be able to monetize it.
(08:24):
To me, it's a really sensible acquisition for a TV
and Z.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
What kind of technical jutta bars do you think they
face now? TV and Z from their end and of
course from the consumers in.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Well, I think most people actually have access to TV
and Z plus today. You know, if you look at
the numbers that they get on the TV and Z
Plus platform, they're huge. You know, they blow away platform
numbers because it's free. There's already a huge number of
New Zealand households that are used to getting TV and
Z Plus. I guess they've only had to What they've
(08:58):
needed to add is the pay functionality and capability on top,
and once again that's relatively straightforward to Yeah, I would
I'd be surprised if TV and Z can't do this seamlessly,
and I assume they'll probably do some trials like.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Anyone before they actually hit the big event.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
So yeah, technically, I think the TV and Z should
be able to pull this off.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Key lessons if you were to give Jodio Donald the
crew at TV Z, what would you tell them about
what you learned through Sparks Venture.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I think the key thing for them, and that's why
they're in such a good position to do this, is
if in the incredibly unlikely. Event they had a technical issue,
They've got all the free to wear channels available to
them to immediately play the content down right, So for
TV and Z if you like, as a fallback, if
they had a problem, they can easily rectify it immediately.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
So that's first thing.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
The second thing is, and I mentioned this already, will
trial this and make sure that it's really robust before
this event hits.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
That's really important.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So you absolutely need to trial whenever you're doing anything
you and the streaming business, you always need to try it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And finally, Jeff and stick your New Zealand Golf CEO
hat on. Great weekend for a couple of siblings.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, listen to fantastic and look, I don't know if
this has happened previously in New Zealand's history, but to
have Kazuma Kabori and Momokah Kabori both come in the
top ten in respective tournaments and their European Tours is
truly remarkable on the same weekends. Yeah, Momoka came in
eighth and Kazuma came in second equal. That's a remarkable
(10:38):
achievement for two young New Zealand golfers.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Just on the start of their professional golfing journey.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
And I kind of think when you look about the
other New Zealand golfers on the world stage, you know
with Foxy and Lydia and Steve Alka and Amelia Garvey,
she's had a really good year, Dan Hillier, We've got
so much talent at the moment on the on the
world stage.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
It's just terrific.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
And on that uplifting and happy note, Jeff Latch, thanks
for your and your expertise and your inport mate.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
You have a great day, no problem does. Pleasure to
talk to you as always.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Jeff Latch joins us now. He's currently the Golf in
Z CEO, but he was the boss of Spark Sport
way back in the day when Spark managed to basically
hijack the hosting rights for the Rugby World Cup. It
was quite a shock. It was quite a slap in
the face, and it didn't start well. It wobbled throughout
(00:34):
the tournament. So I thought i'd get him on the blow.
I'd have a yarn about what he learned, what he meant.
How good of a move is this from TV and
Z remembering they have the exclusive rights for the twenty
twenty six edition, all whites matches and some selected fixtures
will be free to air, But if you want to
(00:55):
watch all one hundred and four games right across the tournament,
you're going to need to buy an event pass on
TV and Z Plus. It's the first time that broadcaster
has had a subscription process. So what do we need
to know? Let's find out from Jeff Latch, who's done
it all before. He joins us now. Gooday, Jeff, Ja Das,
(01:15):
how are you some good things, Jeff, TV and Z
climbed into big sports streaming. This is not little people,
this is enormous. You dealt with the problem to Spark
when you were streaming the Rugby World Cup. Have TV
and Z got the ability to deal with this? Can
they make this work?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It should be reasonably simple for TV and Z to
do this. I think if you think about what's happened
over the last sort of five or six years, globally,
the quality of digital technology and particularly streaming technology is
advanced significantly, right and so.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
And if you look at TV and Z plus, it's
been around for many, many years now.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I can remember I was at TV and Z when
we launched that back in the day. Yeah, it's a
proven service already, so they're not from scratch there, actually
got multiple years under their belt already in the streaming business.
So no, I think for TV and Z this is
absolutely achievable.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'll call Spark the gorse cutter because you rolled on
in there and things are a little unstable at the time.
You experienced a number of troubles on as I was
reporting on it, taking talk back on it, but you
managed to clear that ground, get rid of that now
it's probably a slightly easier path. Is that a fair
thing to say about Spark? About what you did? You
took it away from Sky, you started something new.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I think it is fair to say.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I think we broke quite a lot of new ground,
particularly with the Rugby World Cup package and how we
went out and sold that and how I was actually
received in New Zealand. And yes we had that an
unfortunate mistake with the South Africa game which has haunted
me ever since. But yeah, I think in total, Spark
(03:00):
broke a whole lot of boundaries in the New Zealand
market and really changed things up and probably set the
scene for what we see happening with TVNZ.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Now, did it strike you as a surprise that tv
and Z would haul them with not just sport but
the biggest tournament on the planet by some stretch?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
No, not really, because if you're if you think TVNZ's
coming from a free to wear base into pay and
so the events that are actually really critically important for
a free to wear player are the big global competitions,
So people World Cup in the summer Olympics, of the
two biggest by a country mile, they both deliver big
(03:39):
mass audiences globally five billion for each really, and so
they are the best things if you're a free towre
and going into pay it means that they put out
to the biggest audience possible on free to wear some
of the key matches, and then because this is going
to be a forty eighteen tournament for the first time,
(04:00):
north of one hundred matches, there's so much content that
it actually lends itself for being packaged up. So no,
I think, I think for a free to wear, these
big events are actually really really their sweet spot, and
therefore this is a really good fit for a TV
and Z partnership wise.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I don't know how much they paid. They won't tell us,
but it must have been a substantial amount, but it
would have just been a case of buying through. It
would have been a case because I'm presuming that internationally
major global sports now they look at this, they need
that combination of pay per view and free to hear
and the weight of numbers behind that. That's really important
this day and age.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
It is critical, but it's also kind of back to
the future because if you remember, TV and Z used
to partner with Sky for multiple fef of World Cups.
I know because I was at TV and Z and
did the deals with Sky and so this is different,
but it's also similar because you had to have Sky
to get all of the fixtures in the FIFA World Cup.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And you could watch the big matches live on TV
and Z on TV and Z one.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So this is Yes, it's different, but it's also in
some ways reasonably similar, with a bundle of matches that
will go out free and live, and then a really
big bundle of matches that are going to be available
for the sound of things as a pay package.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Jeff, they've got two things. They've got an event pass
and then they've got the free to wear side of things.
They don't want to deviate too much. Highlight the idea
of maybe picking up a weekly pass or a daily
pass or a game pass. But simplicity is possibly the
rule here. You can pay one fee, have everything, or
you can watch the Kiwi teams play on free Tooware
(05:42):
is that the sensible route?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think it is the sensible route. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
They may decide closer to the FIFA World Cup that
they want to do something different, but certainly we found
with the Rugby World Cup that a package that included
all of the matches, was incredibly popular and there was
a huge appetite for it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
What does this say about the future of TV and
Z and their regression in that sports space? Should Sky?
Should other platforms be concerned about this move? Well?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I think if you look at the bundle of rights
that Sky controlled, they're still in an incredibly strong position.
And remember that the biggest drivers for a pay centric
business like Sky is the long running competitions, So things
like rugby and the NRL and Premier League and F
(06:35):
one those are the properties that really drive pay centric
businesses more than one off big events because you want
people to come in and subscribe and stay for the year,
and so that longevity and spread is actually really important.
And obviously Sky have got a pretty terrific portfolio of
long running sporting competitions.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
You know, most of the world's best are sitting with Sky.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
How much would this have cost them? You got any
idea ballpark figure jets?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, Dassi, I really don't know, but I wouldn't be
surprised if it's well north of ten million US. Sports
rights globally and in New Zealand are not cheap, you know,
I mean, we all know that rugby last time round
went for what north of five hundred million. The cricket
rights are actually really valuable and they go for a
(07:25):
lot of money as well as does the NRL, and
so there's a lot of money tied up in sports rocks.
Big events typically for the New Zealand territory.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Will go for north of US ten million.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
How do I call that back?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Well, if you crunch the numbers for tvnzs depending on
what they charge for the package of say all matches,
if that's what they're doing, if they sell one hundred
thousand of those, you guys, everyone can do the mass,
that's a pretty big number. And then on top of
that they will get huge audiences for the big live
matches on TVNZ one and so the value for sponsorship
(08:02):
and advertising within those fixtures will be significant as well well.
So they're going to have some really big revenue opportunities.
I would have thought around a property like this, and
once again it's because it's free to wear. As a proposition,
the bigger the audience you can deliver in that sense,
the more TV and Z will be able to monetize it.
(08:24):
To me, it's a really sensible acquisition for a TV
and Z.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
What kind of technical jutta bars do you think they
face now? TV and Z from their end and of
course from the consumers in.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Well, I think most people actually have access to TV
and Z plus today. You know, if you look at
the numbers that they get on the TV and Z
Plus platform, they're huge. You know, they blow away platform
numbers because it's free. There's already a huge number of
New Zealand households that are used to getting TV and
Z Plus. I guess they've only had to What they've
(08:58):
needed to add is the pay functionality and capability on top,
and once again that's relatively straightforward to Yeah, I would
I'd be surprised if TV and Z can't do this seamlessly,
and I assume they'll probably do some trials like.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Anyone before they actually hit the big event.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
So yeah, technically, I think the TV and Z should
be able to pull this off.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Key lessons if you were to give Jodio Donald the
crew at TV Z, what would you tell them about
what you learned through Sparks Venture.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I think the key thing for them, and that's why
they're in such a good position to do this, is
if in the incredibly unlikely. Event they had a technical issue,
They've got all the free to wear channels available to
them to immediately play the content down right, So for
TV and Z if you like, as a fallback, if
they had a problem, they can easily rectify it immediately.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
So that's first thing.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
The second thing is, and I mentioned this already, will
trial this and make sure that it's really robust before
this event hits.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
That's really important.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So you absolutely need to trial whenever you're doing anything
you and the streaming business, you always need to try it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And finally, Jeff and stick your New Zealand Golf CEO
hat on. Great weekend for a couple of siblings.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, listen to fantastic and look, I don't know if
this has happened previously in New Zealand's history, but to
have Kazuma Kabori and Momokah Kabori both come in the
top ten in respective tournaments and their European Tours is
truly remarkable on the same weekends. Yeah, Momoka came in
eighth and Kazuma came in second equal. That's a remarkable
(10:38):
achievement for two young New Zealand golfers.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Just on the start of their professional golfing journey.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
And I kind of think when you look about the
other New Zealand golfers on the world stage, you know
with Foxy and Lydia and Steve Alka and Amelia Garvey,
she's had a really good year, Dan Hillier, We've got
so much talent at the moment on the on the
world stage.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
It's just terrific.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
And on that uplifting and happy note, Jeff Latch, thanks
for your and your expertise and your inport mate.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
You have a great day, no problem does. Pleasure to
talk to you as always.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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