Sky vs Sky

Last night was historic for Richie McCaw and the All Blacks.

The second Bledisloe Cup game was also a landmark for Sky TV. It was the first big test of its revamped Fanpass online service, which now offers day ($14.99) and week ($19.99) passes to Sky Sport channels 1 to 4.

That means for the first time you no longer have to take a contract with Sky TV proper to catch an All Blacks or Black Caps game. Fanpass debuted in February but was originally restricted to purpose-built Super Rugby, NRL and Formula One channels, each with their own subscription fee; Sky refuses to give subscriber numbers – a stance that would annoy the living heck out of me if I were a shareholder.

So how did Fanpass hold up during the big game? When I put that question on social media, I got a mixed response – and my own experience was mixed (keep reading).

First, a big of background: Fanpass runs in parallel to Sky Go an online service that's free for those holding a traditional Sky TV subscription. It includes streaming Sky Sport channels if those are part of your Sky package. 

Sky Go grew out of Sky's earlier iSky platform, an inhouse initiative that was able to borrow technologies from different parts of Rupert Murdoch's empire, back when the media baron still owned a slice of Sky TV NZ. (Our Sky continues to co-operate with Sky in the UK, and Foxtel, even though their common Murdoch ownership is a thing of the past). Sky first used a Kordia content delivery network (CDN) for the service. These days Sky Go is delivered via a CDN run by US-based multi-national Akamai. Sky Go has been famously crap. Seemingly every big game – especially those held during office hours when people are likely to hit their PC, tablet or smartphone – it has fallen over. It was no different last night.

NO SKY CONTRACT REQUIRED: Watching the big game on Fanpass.

I was going to try out Fanpass' Sky Sport 1 streaming on an iPad, streaming to my regular television via an Apple TV but at the last minute I scored a ticket to the actual game at Eden Park, so I downloaded the Fanpass app to my iPhone 6 Plus and decided to try my luck over 4G.

My expectations were low. I didn't think it was realistic for Fanpass to work outside wi-fi (and of course most people are on a data cap that would see a single game blitz their monthly limit).

But to my surprise Fanpass streamed smoothly and the picture looked great (NeuLion uses adaptive streaming up to high definition if your broadband connection can take it; in the US the company has recently been experimenting with 4K, Mr Wagner says).

The only hiccups were during the anthem and the haka, presumably because all phone networks were temporarily swamped as a good whack of the 48,000 crowd snapped pics for Twitter or Facebook.

After that, the game streamed smoothly on a 90-second delay (compared to a TV broadcast's delay of 30 seconds or so). Not bad, considering video had to be transcoded on the fly. I could glance at it for, effectively, an instant replay as I watched the game live.

How others found it
This morning, I asked a Sky TV spokeswoman for the company's official verdict on Fanpass and Sky Go's performance during the game. "Great!" she replied.

Personally, I was pretty impressed with Fanpass. So were others. Among my Twitter followers* — and this is a pretty cynical lot, who've thrown many a dagger at Sky Go — @StuFlemingNZ, @Pseudony_Ms, @FullFlavour, @nzben and @twocolddogs were among those who reported solid performance. Amazingly, @simcore was able to follow the game on a 3G connection. He reports the video was okay but that sound dropped out at times. NBR reporter Tim Hunter, who has previously had a lousy time with Sky Go, gave Fanpass a go and found it pretty good bar a couple of stutters.

@kpatton and @DavidSlack had an up-and-down time. For Mr Slack, who was on a VDSL (fast copper) landline, it froze every two or three minutes [UPDATE: Mr Patton says the Sunday evening netball on Fanpass was "as smooth as". Sky Go fell over again.]

@swiftynz found things improved when he stopped trying to stream via a Google Chromecast stick and instead plugged his laptop into his TV via an HDMI cable (as with any streaming service, dodgy wi-fi or home wiring can doom you to a bad experience, even if you're on a fast internet connection).

So: not universal accolades but anecdotally Fanpass seems to have performed pretty handily — especially next to Sky Go which go its usual wall-to-wall derision. But pretty good for most people most of the time isn't good enough. Those thinking about parting with $14.99 to watch a big game will be given pause by the smattering of negative comments.

ABOVE: Screen grabs taken while watching Fanpass on a 3G connection.

Fanpass fail-over
Both Sky Go and Fanpass are served from an Akamai server farm in Sydney, it seems from ISP insiders' comments (Sky and NeuLion won't comment on the CDN details of either). Fanpass also had fail-over to second CDN, Limelight – which seemed to be serving out of the US and offering extra firepower when Sydney got overwhelmed.

The nightmare scenario
Streaming is tricky. No matter how powerful or well-managed your content delivery system, it's hard to accommodate subscribers' different broadband and wi-fi setups, and the way different gadgets handle audio and video. 

But there's the thing: it's only going to get better over the coming years, and fibre has scads of capacity for delivering video (in stark contrast to terrestrial broadcast towers and the single satellite that servers NZ TV viewers – where transponders are a scarce and very expensive commodity).

The nightmare scenario for Sky TV has to be that around 2019 or so, the Rugby Union (which has already dabbled with YouTube for Bledisloe Cup broadcast) takes it upon itself to do a deal direct with NeuLion. It's unlikely – for now – that any sports body would go all broadband. But it's quite possible that broadband and broadcast rights will be split, taking the shine off the value of the latter.

* I double-checked everyone quoted was in fact using Fanpass, not Go.