SBS to air all World Cup games for 48 hours after Optus streaming issues
Optus has announced that all World Cup games will be simulcast on free-to-air SBS for two days, after a wave of complaints about its subscription streaming service.
Key points:
- The decision to hand the rights to SBS came after the PM called Optus's chief executive
- Fans have been unable to watch live matches on the Optus Sport website and apps
- There are calls for the telco to give refunds
Optus Sport holds the exclusive rights for most World Cup matches, but many subscribers have been unable to watch live games amid connection issues, dropouts and other faults during the tournament's opening days.
Optus chief executive Allen Lew said the telco would use the two days of simulcasting to come up with a "robust solution".
"We have a dedicated team that have been working around the clock to attend to the technical issues," he said.
"The demand is no reason for us to make the mistakes that we did over the weekend so I apologise for that."
SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid said if the technical issues are not fixed within 48 hours the simulcasting could be extended, but for now there were no plans to.
"At this stage, Optus is saying they've fixed the problem," he said.
"We'll see how it goes over the next two nights and then we'll together — as partners and broadcasters — we'll reassess, and if we need to continue [simulcasting] we'll make that decision at the time."
The deal between the two broadcasters came after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke to Mr Lew to urge him to fix the problems.
"He assures me he is giving the World Cup streaming problems his personal attention and he believes it will be fixed this evening," Mr Turnbull said.
"He believes he can fix it, believes it will be fixed tonight, and obviously Australian soccer fans will be expecting Optus to deliver in that regard."
Mr Ebeid said SBS and Optus had been in talks since the early hours of the morning about the issues, and that the deal did not happen because of the Prime Minister's call.
"Optus recognised that they wanted to provide the best service possible, and they are very confident that they've fixed the issues that were causing the problem over the weekend," Mr Ebeid said.
"But they wanted to make sure that tonight and tomorrow night that they were able to test the fixes that they put in."
Socceroos greats joined criticism of Optus
SBS has a deal that only allows it to broadcast selected games from the group and knockout stages, along with Socceroos games, both semi-finals and the final.
Earlier former Socceroo Robbie Slater said the Government should intervene to ensure all matches were shown on SBS.
Fellow former Socceroo Paul Wade said "we are so mad as a football community", agreeing the World Cup needed to be broadcast on free-to-air.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said he was glad the "sensible" deal to give the games to SBS had been struck.
Federal Labor's Steve Georganas said he had been "inundated" with complaints and called for Optus to "immediately refund customers for a service that hasn't worked as advertised".
"It's time to treat the world game, the football community, with respect," the Adelaide-based MP told the Lower House.
Optus charges $15 a month for subscriptions to the service.
In a statement, an Optus spokesman said work was underway "around the clock" to fix the problems.
"Regrettably Optus experienced technical issues during the Costa Rica v Serbia match of the FIFA World Cup on Sunday night which affected some customers," he said.
"Fortunately, we were able to improve the viewing experience for customers for the subsequent Germany v Mexico and Brazil v Switzerland games.
"We know that the majority of customers are having a good broadcast experience during the World Cup."
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