SBS given ALL GAMES in the World Cup group stage after broadcast debacle

All World Cup matches are to be broadcast on Optus and SBS until the end of the group stage.

Public broadcaster SBS was given the rights to show two matchdays of the tournament after Optus was unable to deliver to its customers.

Viewers who paid Optus to watch the World Cup have been forced to endure glitches, buffering issues and interrupted games since the tournament began on Friday. 

Optus vice-president of regulatory and public affairs Andrew Sheridan told the Australian Financial Review  it had broadcast five matches in a row with ‘minimal problems’.

The new agreement means SBS and Optus will broadcast all World Cup games until June 29 – and Optus customers who paid to watch the tournament will also receive a full refund.

Optus has one last chance to show it has fixed its streaming issues after the telco’s disastrous coverage of the football World Cup (Pictured: Optus host Mel McLaughlin)

Public broadcaster SBS was given the right to show two matchdays of the tournament after Optus was unable to deliver to its customers (Pictured: Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo)

Public broadcaster SBS was given the right to show two matchdays of the tournament after Optus was unable to deliver to its customers (Pictured: Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo)

Viewers who had paid Optus to watch the World Cup were forced to endure glitches, buffering issues and having games interrupted with black screens reading 'playback error'

Viewers who had paid Optus to watch the World Cup were forced to endure glitches, buffering issues and having games interrupted with black screens reading ‘playback error’

‘We found the actions we took through the course of the evening has led to a dramatic increase in performance for customers,’ he said.

‘It is a relatively small proportion of customers that had difficulties. I’m not in a position to give exact numbers, but over 90 per cent of customers had a good service even when we ran into some difficulties.’    

Optus chief executive Allen Lew apologised ‘unreservedly to all Australians’ on Sunday, but there were further issues later that night. 

Optus bought the rights to broadcast the tournament for a reported $8million.

Optus chief executive Allen Lew apologised 'unreservedly to all Australians' on Sunday, but there were further issues that night

Optus chief executive Allen Lew apologised ‘unreservedly to all Australians’ on Sunday, but there were further issues that night

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took the unusual step of contacting Mr Lew, wanting assurances the problems would be fixed

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took the unusual step of contacting Mr Lew, wanting assurances the problems would be fixed

Optus later agreed to let SBS broadcast a handful of matches that were intended to be exclusive to Optus, buying itself 48 hours to resolve all issues

Optus later agreed to let SBS broadcast a handful of matches that were intended to be exclusive to Optus, buying itself 48 hours to resolve all issues

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took the unusual step of contacting Mr Lew, wanting assurances the problems would be fixed. 

Optus later agreed to let SBS broadcast a handful of matches that were intended to be exclusive to Optus, buying itself 48 hours to resolve all issues.

That run of content will end on Wednesday morning in Australia after Russia plays Egypt.

‘There’s no doubt this has adversely affected the Optus brand … everybody is very disappointed, to put it mildly,’ an apologetic Mr Lew said. 

‘We will use the two days we have … to robustly test the systems under different loads. We believe by that time we will have the technical issues resolved.’

Football fans started using the hashtag 'floptus' to criticise the telco's coverage of the World Cup

Football fans started using the hashtag ‘floptus’ to criticise the telco’s coverage of the World Cup

 



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