Optus EPL debut match besieged with bugs and freezes, user anger
Optus’ bid to become a major content player with its exclusive coverage of the English Premier League got off to a rocky start over the weekend as hundreds of customers took to social media to complain about buggy feeds, delays and freezes.
The bid by the telco to steal away Foxtel’s soccer-loving audience has faced a number of hurdles, from initial anger of the successful $180 million bid for the rights, to concerns over the needs to be an Optus customer to get the feed and the costs involved.
The EPL’s opening weekend on Optus was followed quickly by a wave of disgruntled people posting on Twitter and Facebook about delays and freezes with some commentators accusing the telco of ruining the opening weekend.
The signal quality was dreadful . Hopefully they fix it in time for next week otherwise it will be a 1 month wonder in my house
Well I switched to Optus NBN purely to get Premier League, and so far I’m impressed with the service. Watched a bunch of games on the weekend via my Optus Fetch TV box, all in high-def with no lag whatsoever.
with no lag what so ever? all feeds were at least delayed for 30seconds! stfu optus has failed day one
…delayed for 30 seconds because DRM is a contractual obligation. Same apples with all digital distribution. So it you want On-Demand access rather than TV broadcast then expect a slight lag for it to go through a different pipe.
I recently got the NBN and switched to Optus purely to get Premier League, and so far I’m impressed with the service. Watched a bunch of games on the weekend via my Optus Fetch TV box, all in high-def with no lag whatsoever. Guess the quality of the feed has a fair bit to do your internet speeds.
Do you work for Optus?
Nope – see my response to Ralph Wiggum’s comment immediately below.
Hi Sterling,
Obviously as Optus employee you would say that (twice)!
Hi Ralph, no, I’m not an Optus employee and sorry for the accidental double post (hadn’t realised the first one submitted correctly!)
For what it’s worth, I think it’s stupid and self-destructive that Optus doesn’t make EPL accessible to people who aren’t signed up to their service – they should have a pay-per-view app for customers of other telcos. I was merely making the point that I was in a position to sign up with the Optus broadband service and so far have been happy with the EPL coverage. That doesn’t mean that people who are locked in to contracts on other telcos aren’t rightfully aggrieved. By the way, it’s interesting that as soon as you voice any sort of support for a company online, people will assume you are a paid spinner!
Not surprising – especially given that Optus pretty much admitted to me that their network sucks and my cable internet is useless when too many people use it (or “peak time slows” to be technical). I can barely stream a two minute video from Facebook over wifi without buffering, let alone a full game of football.
Is it possible the majority of news reports are coming from Fox affiliate sources? Watched a bunch of games over the weekend with no drama. If anything it’s another reminder of the terrible internet Australians endure
I had a few issues with matches loading and had to retry a couple of times but it did work.
I was impressed by the set up – nice UX/UI
The highlight shows are way too short – you cant show a goal and not show a replay?
You cant expect to launch something like that and not have some issues with technology – its how they respond that counts
Difficult to trust a lot of Fox owned media sources slating Optus EPL coverage. We had no issues beyond the satellite disruption called out in the article. ON another note….IBRA! Goals on debut in every league he’s played in…
Like the AFR.
Thought coverage was excellent. No problems.
To all those Premier League fans – our recently launched EON Sports Radio station available on all digital radios (DAB+) and via the EON Sports Radio website and mobile app nationally features live and exclusive free-to-air audio coverage of all Premier League games. Download the app or tune-in weekly!
Fox affiliates or not. It doesn’t take away the disaster this weekend was for the majority of fans and it needs reporting. It seems that a minority were able to watch games trouble free but whether or not you were one of the lucky ones, it doesn’t take away the fact that a huge number of people didn’t get a good experience and had their weekend of EPL ruined.
Although a lot of us assumed there would be some issues, I don’t think anyone expected just how poor the service would be.
Optus needs to accept that there are no quick fixes to these problems. People are just going to get angrier each week as yet again they experience problems that ruin their enjoyment of watching a game.
Just as BT Internet did in the UK with SKY, Optus need to seriously consider the option of providing a subscription channel, through the Foxtel platform. $15-$20 a month will see the cash roll in and take away much of the fury they will receive each week from frustrated fans.
Sure no problems rupert.. All good ideas.
I have no affiliation to Optus or Foxtel. In case you were wondering, I was the person watching Boro v Stoke on Saturday. Mostly, the quality via my mini Fetch box was good, but the problem lies in the word “mostly”. Optus has admitted that streaming quality can vary across devices, which only serves to remind loyal EPL watchers of what they are missing with the convenience and consistency of Foxtel’s cable service. We are now at the mercy of networks, wifi, and so on. And let’s face it, if like me you still have Foxtel and are not a master of wiring, it is annoying having to switch between platforms. The 24/7 call centre is not the answer, for two reasons. First, nobody wants to be calling India due to an outage with 2 minutes to go in a 4-3 nailbiter. Second, the call centre is hopeless. I’ve already made something like a dozen to calls to sort out various Optus TV problems and usually the problem has not been fixed. And always, it was a very long phone call. One final point. Don’t try watching an EPL game whilst anyone else in your house is streaming, say Netflix on another TV. I tried to bring up the Olympics on my laptop and almost missed another foul on Gaston Ramirez when the service cut out.
Hi there,
Everyone seems to forget that Fox Sports had EPL and the Socceroos matches hostage for 15+ years – I wasn’t prepared to pay $100 per month back then when it launched. They also didn’t offer a pay-per-view option for fans (as has been requested in this forum) that didn’t want the full blown package. Only since Netflix came along have they been forced to drop the price – too late Foxtel. I had an excellent experience on the weekend and watch multiple matches on a Mac, Fetch TV and on ipad via Wifi – it is great and well done Optus for such a great offering.
People love a whinge. Watched without issue, the user interface, extra content, UK panels etc make it a better proposition than what we used to have. Really enjoyed it this weekend (helps Liverpool won!).
Signed up in July and they still haven’t even managed to install my broadband. Blaming Telstra. Also failed to tell me that only latest Apple TV is compatible. Oh, and I can’t record games! Can’t wait for their NPS scores to plummet and ultimately it damages the EPL by restricting access to potential new fans too. Strategy has been a mistake from Day 1 treating football the same as a new handset or product. Shambles.
why do you need to record games when they are available on demand?
Anytime there is ANY launch you get complaints. It’s impossible to launch perfectly for every single device….and there are a lot of devices out there.
I had zero problems, streams and quality were perfect, though j ran everything off Wifi. I was genuinely surprised, as I was gearing up to hate all over Optus, and was expecting problems.
People complained about Foxtel charging a fortune, then Optus comes along and you can watch it on multiple devices and through your tv and suddenly they’re rorting the community?
I was actually super excited to get a legal way to stream the premier league.
But unfortunately, half way through I switched to some overseas streams from Sky Sports.
The commentary is infinitely better and to for the most part had a shorter delay (up to 30 seconds) and better streaming quality than Optus. Maybe they should be using P2P to speed it up given its all on their network.
Hmm. I want to do the right thing, and I’m paying Optus, but the quality is so much worse.
7 Olympics and now Optus, why cant we do streaming properly in this country?