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FIFA World Cup fury over Optus streaming fail

Optus, you had one job....

FIFA World Cup fans have slammed Optus over coverage of last night’s Egypt v. Uruguay match which was subjected to constant buffering and drop-outs.

Optus is the only provider with all 64 matches both Live to Australians.

Angry fans took to social media with a tirade of anger.

With Australia playing tonight there are just hours remaining to avoid a much bigger disaster. Much.

https://twitter.com/JulianDaw/status/1007634661667831808

https://twitter.com/Avatar1209/status/1007629973237084160

Update via Daily Tele: An Optus spokesperson apologised for the disruption and said they were investigating the cause.

“Some Optus Sport customers experienced a disruption to their 2018 FIFA World Cup viewing experience on Friday night,” they said.

“This was due to an extremely high number of viewers logging into our platforms just before kick-off causing some systems to overload.

“While most customers on most platforms were unaffected, we apologise unreservedly to those customers who were, and are continuing to investigate the cause of these systems issues.”

15 Responses

  1. We can blame SBS for this they sold the rights to Optus .if Optus want exclusivity then they have to provide an excellent service other wise they should lose the rights .fifa World Cup only comes round once every four years there is no room for stuff ups Optus .so dissapointed.

  2. This is exactly what happened the first week that the Optus EPL coverage went live, they blamed it on the number of people logging on to watch, which I thought was the idea.. I ordered the Fetch mini box, which after it updated itself a few times has been pretty flawless since. No issues with WC so far but I wish it was available through the Foxtel service one way or another as well.

  3. I’m still happy SBS did the deal with Optus. With this SBS got a live English Premier League every week whilst giving world cup games a lot of them at 1am and 4am to Optus. This deal meant more football on free to air outside th world cup so it certainly works out for football supporters (supporters who actually watch football outside the world cup) who don’t have or can’t afford pay tv.

    1. Are u high? this is one of the worst deals ever. SBS gave up every game live for one game a week, probably one of the worst deals of all time.

      1. Multi year picked up a 38 EPL games a year. Lost 39 games in a comp held every 4 years, but kept all pointy end games. Deal secured a large amount of extra content provided for free. Definitely a good deal.

        1. No, this was an entirely poor decision by SBS.
          If you’re counting minutes of Football then yes SBS are well on top.
          If you’re including the prestige factor & the interest by Australian audiences then SBS are well behind. It’s a decision that should’ve been flushed.

  4. If SBS had not down a deal to on sell games to Optus would not be an issue as all previous WC SBS did all game it was either for money or to annoy Fox Sports, but the SBS studio commentators are very very ordinary so hopefully the Optus ones are bether?

  5. I can understand complaints if app access to to live stream suffered issues. That being said reliability issues don’t exist across the board as my access via fetch was perfect last night and on that platform the Optus Sport offering is very good. Great picture, presentation and live content games/shows from 9pm to at least 8am this morning (2hrs after the game). Also ability to start programs from beginning if you come in late and full replays for everything important. Same applies to Premier League with content better that what Foxtel provided. As for cost It’s part of my NBN deal. Again for those suffering I feel for you but if fixed across platforms it is a way to keep other providers honest, which Foxtel is not.

  6. All Optus had to do is work out a deal for Foxtel to carry Optus Sports – independent paid subscription service, like Bein Sports use to be, so residential subscribers get live high def satellite feed. Or somehow supply subscribers access to another set top box so we can have what we want the live high def satellite feed.

    Some would complain still but I would happily pay more for this service.

    I work in a pub, Sky Channel racing now broadcast Optus Sports 1 & 2 as part of our basic racing package.

    The reliable technology is what needs to be used, sorry mass live Internet streaming – not a fan.

    Also I noticed Optus Sports after all the complaints had a free feed of the game on the website, with no log in required, I just googled Optus Sport and clicked on the site and it opened. I guess they try to do the right thing.

  7. This was always going to happen. We don’t have the infrastructure in Australia to support this type of proposition. Whoever gets the cash from the rights in Australia saw the short term cash as more important that ensuring whoever they awarded the rights to would be reliably able to deliver the service. They should have gone with either FTA or Foxtel or both and maybe taken a little less. And those blaming the government and suggesting that the government should be dictating who should be getting the rights. Go away. This isn’t North Korea.

    1. I agree with most of your comments, this SWC event happens every 4 years and should be treated with better respect by the broadcasters even if it may not be a total ratings winner, with FTA putting their sporting eggs into the NRL and AFL basket at this time of the year. Foxtel in conjunction with the SBS would have been the better choice but Optus is looking to developing its own pay TV platform after dropping Foxtel so this commercial streaming game will go on.

    1. @Andyh2. Thanks for your intelligent input. I have a few words that would be appropriate in describing your remarks but unfortunately they would have me banned from this site.

  8. Yep , saw this coming a mile off. The blame lies with SBS and their deal with Optus having sold the rights several years ago. I predicted this debacle back then.

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