New Zealand’s national broadcaster TVNZ has unveiled a partnership with sports monetisation leader Evergent, marking its evolution from a free-to-view, ad-supported business into a hybrid model offering premium live sport via one-off purchase for the first time.
Launched for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the new TVNZ+ Event Pass enabled viewers to watch all 104 matches on the TVNZ+ service. The tournament generated more than 20 million streams across TVNZ+’s free-to-view and premium offerings, breaking records as the most-watched event to date on the platform.
Supported by Evergent, TVNZ introduced a TVNZ+ Event Pass for premium live sport for the first time. This opened a direct-to-consumer relationship with viewers and laid out a new way to monetise premium content.
To set the conditions for this strategic shift, Evergent also played an end-to-end role in supporting the migration of TVNZ+ viewers onto a brand-new TVNZ+ platform and configured the business rules and Event Pass structures that strengthened TVNZ's new premium sports offering.
Once TVNZ+ Event Passes went on sale for FIFA World Cup 2026, the platform Evergent supported was built to auto scale. This allowed peak match windows to be handled, backed by dedicated operational support to every transaction and entitlement to ensure an uninterrupted viewer experience.
Nicola Spurdle, TVNZ’s General Manager, Technology, said, “Evergent has been a key partner in this journey of launching a brand-new platform, which has allowed TVNZ to extend its ad-supported streaming model to one where we can keep experimenting with paid, premium content offerings.
“The successful launch of our first pay product, FIFA World Cup 2026, last month was a huge milestone for TVNZ, and one we’re incredibly proud of.”
Vijay Sajja, Founder & CEO, Evergent, added, “We are extremely excited and proud of the success achieved together with TVNZ.
“The campaign delivered exceptional results, while maintaining platform performance which was a significant achievement for all. We look forward to building on this strong partnership and delivering many more successful digital experiences together.”
