Best Option to pay stream for Cricket Broadcasts in NZ

[Mr Miyagi]

Hi Guys,

I'm in NZ. I'm sick of Sky TV's treatment to cricket. Worse yet. I'm on Vodafone, so that still means I have to pay for "sky entertainment" to watch sky sport, plus no free Soho.

To understand how poorly Sky treats its cricket customers - this will give an idea to those outside New Zealand.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/crick...rs-live-coverage-of-fiery-south-africa-series

Parallel importing is legal in NZ. What this means for me is that monopoly supply agreements are not binding on those not party to them. So I may happily purchase a legitimate cricket stream from anywhere in the world. I have a computer with a 4k graphics card running ubuntu permanently connected to my tv with wireless all in one a touchpad and keyboard as a remote, so I'm good to go. NZ Post, a NZ Government owned agency has kindly provided me with addresses in the UK, and most importantly the USA, Multnomah County, Oregon. A state in the USA with no sales tax. Thanks NZ Post.

I only have vdsl as no fibre on my street as yet.

What is my best option for a VPN? What are their costs, what is their reliability?

What is my best option for a stream? I have read that it may be willow via sling? How good is this? Will it satisfy my nigh insatiable NZC demands, as well as Sky, does? Or will I only miss the BKSS games that Sky is only sporadically broadcasting with the Ford Trophy final these days anyway?

Are there any HD options with the ability to rewind, and watch not in live time? I am used to PVR (rewinding and fast forwarding) or watching off record.

Some of you will have experimented and will know the good providers from the bad ones now. So please help.

And moderators, I understand your concerns, but I repeat, parallel importing is legal in NZ, and I am not a supplier of cricket broadcasts to Sky TV nor am I an agent of Sky TV. I am a disgruntled customer of Vodafone and Sky looking to save a buck and have more legitimate cricket viewing options and will happily pay subscription fees for them. I am not looking for any crappy free streams.

Please help me, those in the know already. $80.00 a month to not be able to watch Aus v SA or Ind vs SA is just too much money wasted.

EDIT: Mods please add USA to thread title with NZ.

 

[Prince EWS]

Hi Guys,

I'm in NZ. I'm sick of Sky TV's treatment to cricket. Worse yet. I'm on Vodafone, so that still means I have to pay for "sky entertainment" to watch sky sport, plus no free Soho.

To understand how poorly Sky treats its cricket customers - this will give an idea to those outside New Zealand.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/crick...rs-live-coverage-of-fiery-south-africa-series

Parallel importing is legal in NZ. What this means for me is that monopoly supply agreements are not binding on those not party to them. So I may happily purchase a legitimate cricket stream from anywhere in the world. I have a computer with a 4k graphics card running ubuntu permanently connected to my tv with wireless all in one a touchpad and keyboard as a remote, so I'm good to go. NZ Post, a NZ Government owned agency has kindly provided me with addresses in the UK, and most importantly the USA, Multnomah County, Oregon. A state in the USA with no sales tax. Thanks NZ Post.

I only have vdsl as no fibre on my street as yet.

What is my best option for a VPN? What are their costs, what is their reliability?

What is my best option for a stream? I have read that it may be willow via sling? How good is this? Will it satisfy my nigh insatiable NZC demands, as well as Sky, does? Or will I only miss the BKSS games that Sky is only sporadically broadcasting with the Ford Trophy final these days anyway?

Are there any HD options with the ability to rewind, and watch not in live time? I am used to PVR (rewinding and fast forwarding) or watching off record.

Some of you will have experimented and will know the good providers from the bad ones now. So please help.

And moderators, I understand your concerns, but I repeat, parallel importing is legal in NZ, and I am not a supplier of cricket broadcasts to Sky TV nor am I an agent of Sky TV. I am a disgruntled customer of Vodafone and Sky looking to save a buck and have more legitimate cricket viewing options and will happily pay subscription fees for them. I am not looking for any crappy free streams.

Please help me, those in the know already. $80.00 a month to not be able to watch Aus v SA or Ind vs SA is just too much money wasted.

EDIT: Mods please add USA to thread title with NZ.

Yeah, it's Willow for cricket rivering. You'll miss NZ domestic stuff, but get a lot more internationals that NZ isn't involved in. They occasionally do end up missing some internationals but that's rare, and I can't remember a series NZ played they missed.

I use ExpressVPN for my VPN, and it serves me well in evading quite a bit of geoblocking around the world. If you only need your VPN for cricket/Willow then there may be better options though, as you only need it to supply a US or Canadian server for that, rather than the vast array ExpressVPN supply. I can confirm it does work well with Willow though.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Yeah, it's Willow for cricket rivering. You'll miss NZ domestic stuff, but get a lot more internationals that NZ isn't involved in. They occasionally do end up missing some internationals but that's rare, and I can't remember a series NZ played they missed.

I use ExpressVPN for my VPN, and it serves me well in evading quite a bit of geoblocking around the world. If you only need your VPN for cricket/Willow then there may be better options though, as you only need it to supply a US or Canadian server for that, rather than the vast array ExpressVPN supply. I can confirm it does work well with Willow though.

Okay so Express VPN is recommended. Thank you for your reply.

Who do people recommend getting Willow through?

Has anyone on here signed upto with to Willow on Sling? From I can tell, if I get Willow a la carte, I can get the 2 Willow Channels for $60.00 for a year, with a free Roku Express. Is the Roku Express worth getting? Sling offers a $5.00 P/D VR (personal/digital video recorder that allows recording, but more importantly instant rewind and then fast forward again). Does anyone know if this works on Willow channels? Do any other providers of Willow also offer a DVR service?

Cricket is my primary objective Prince EWS, it would be nice to be able to watch state of origin, rugby test matches, so I am open to spending more on a "rivering" service than the bare minimum for just circket. Also, I don't mind having the tv on in the evening even if its just on espn or fox sports and I'm not attentively watching it. Besides sports, all I regularly watch on Sky or TV for that matter seems to be Comedy Central's the Daily Show and the Opposition.

I do not have freeview currently connected which is a pain, but hopefully I can resole this without too much expense as I have an aerial on the roof. But with Vodafone tv offering freeview channels over Internet Protocols, I don't think it will be too long before the free to air networks start doing it themselves direct.

 

[Burgey]

Mr Miyagi, the only problem is the rivers tend to wax on and wax off a bit.

 

[S.Kennedy]

To understand how poorly Sky treats its cricket customers - this will give an idea to those outside New Zealand.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/crick...rs-live-coverage-of-fiery-south-africa-series

Not bidding on the ''sandpaper-gate'' series, Sky must feel like the guy who turned down signing The Beatles.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Mr Miyagi, the only problem is the rivers tend to wax on and wax off a bit.

A small price to pay to sweep the leg of my Sky TV bill and get the South African matches.

Even Bangladesh v Australia last year would have been nice to watch or see some of.

Not to mention Afghanistan have a host of fascinating cricketers that may make for excellent viewing soon.

The Asia Cup is regularly a good contest.

There is just so much top cricket that Sky does not provide me with for my $80.00 a month.

Time to adopt a Cobra Kai dojo style of No Mercy. No need to worry about wax or wax off: as Johnny says in the trailer below at the 15s mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_2oCRPrjM#t=14s

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Not bidding on the ''sandpaper-gate'' series, Sky must feel like the guy who turned down signing The Beatles.

To be fair, he ended up signing the Rolling Stones, and Mick was by all accounts far more professional to work with than John. I think he did alright.

Sky if it isn't careful and start adapting and being more flexible, as well as price-conscious, will maybe end up like Blockbuster. I won't shed any tears if this happens.

Sky lost my goodwill somewhere between making me buy expensive channels I don't want just to watch sports, and buying the monopoly rights to NZ cricket games and then broadcasting stuff all of them cause presumably camera crews cost money, but giving us the BBL instead which it probably got for cheap, 'cos we all know after the South Africa tour that Sky's purchasers don't flash the wallet for buying cricket matches.

Let someone else like TV 3 have the domestic rights if you don't want to broadcast them Sky.

Oh and sneakily taking away hotspot just to save a buck this summer was just icing on the cake, until Ross Taylor called for a review that wasn't available in full. He lost his wicket, and NZ lost the review. Thanks, Sky. Good to see my subscription fees are helping the players.

But I'm going off topic a tad. I am keen on hearing about best rivering options to get cricket, and a bit more on the side.

 

[Athlai]

Mr Miyagi, the only problem is the rivers tend to wax on and wax off a bit.