Spark and Sky TV appear on a collision course.

Spark has won the New Zealand rights to Formula One races which it will stream online.

Spark's head of sport Jeff Latch said Spark had secured rights to the Formula One and Formula Two championships, GP3 Series and the 2019 Porsche Super Cup Series, for three years, starting with the Australian Grand Prix in March.

The broadband and phone company threw down the gauntlet to Sky Television in April when it announced it had won the rights to next year's Rugby World Cup in Tokyo.

It followed that up in August by winning the rights to broadcast English Premier League matches for three seasons starting from next August.

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Managing director Simon Moutter said then that Spark intended to be "a key player in the evolving sports media landscape."

"We are setting out to transform the way sport is distributed and viewed in New Zealand, in the same way general entertainment viewing has been transformed by the likes of Lightbox, Netflix and YouTube," he said.

STUFF Spark have acquired rights for the English Premier League as their potential sports streaming service continues to grow.

Latch said Spark would announce it had won more sports content rights within weeks, and would launch a new sports streaming service to deliver the programming "early next year".

Plans and pricing have yet to be disclosed.

But spokeswoman Ellie Cross indicated Spark might have enough sports content for it to offer all its sports for a single price, making it a direct competitor to Sky Sport – as well as letting customers subscriber to watch individual events and competitions.

"We've said that customers will be able to buy access to the RWC as a 'standalone', but there's likely to be benefits in signing up at a level that allows customers to view multiple sports," she said.

Customers will not have to be Spark broadband customers to watch its sport service. "This is absolutely for all Kiwis," she said.

The motorsports rights are likely to have cost Spark millions of dollars.

Formula One media rights manager Michaella Snoeck said Spark would provide New Zealanders with "unprecedented coverage in the territory".

"Our focus is to provide fans with greater accessibility to coverage across all devices, which Spark sport's platform will provide," she said.

Despite the "away game" upsets, Sky has continued to dominate the home game for New Zealand and trans-Tasman sports codes.

In August, it also picked up the broadcasting rights for the (football) UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League for the three seasons ending in 2020-21.

Sky chief executive John Fellet said at the company's annual meeting this month that there would be some gaps in its offering "in the current competitive environment".

"Our goal is to ensure we're pleasing the majority of Kiwi sports fans the majority of the time, and we think our current sport offering, even without the sports which Spark has purchased, easily does this," he said.

NOW IN SPARK'S LOCKER

Rugby

- Rugby World Cup 2019

- Women's Rugby World Cup 2021

- World Rugby U20 Championships 2019

- Heineken Champions Cup

Football

- English Premier League

- Manchester United TV

Motorsports

- Formula One World Championships

- Formula 2 Championship

- GP3 Series

- 2019 Porsche Super Cup Series