About 25,000 people with a certain brand of digital TV are no longer be able to live-stream coverage from TVNZ+.

As of today, the state broadcaster has taken over the rights to a range of major sports and events from Spark.

A spokesperson said as part of that agreement, TVNZ has added new copyright protections to stop its streams from being illegally copied.

"Our rights holders require certain measures to prevent the piracy of their content and this is particularly important when it comes to sports," she said.

"Unfortunately, the change we've made to TVNZ+ is not compatible with Samsung 2015/2016 connected TVs.

"While live streaming will not be accessible on these devices, TVNZ+ video-on-demand content including movies, TV shows and sport highlights will all work as normal."

About 25,000 TVNZ+ users each month used a Samsung 2015/16 device to watch, of which half used their TV exclusively.

"We'll be supporting viewers who use their Samsung 2015/16 exclusively to figure out an option that works for them.

"That may be adding a device like a Chromecast to their set up rather than investing in a new TV, for example."

-RNZ