Optus hands World Cup games back to SBS after #Floptus streaming debacle
Optus has waved the white flag on its streaming nightmare and handed SBS the rights to air four extra World Cup games while the telco attempts to fix its unreliable football coverage.
SBS said it had agreed to air the games over the next two days “after discussions with Optus”. The games will be available in HD.
SBS will now air four more games, including tonight’s 10pm Group F clash between Sweden and Korea Republic and tonight’s Group G Belgium versus Panama match.
The move comes after a nightmare weekend for Optus which came under intense criticism for its unreliable streaming. A large number of subscribers – who had paid $15 to access the tournament – complained they were unable to watch the weekend games which were exclusive to Optus.
“This decision has been made with the interests of football fans across Australia in mind,” said Optus CEO Allen Lew.
“Most Optus Sport viewers have had a positive viewing experience, however I acknowledge that the experience has not been consistent for all viewers, which is unacceptable.”
“I offer an unreserved apology to those customers that have been let down. We have a dedicated team which has been working around the clock to address technical issues where they have occurred.”
The debacle became a political row, with Prime Minister entering the fray to criticise Optus failure to adequately prepare for the broadcast. Optus CEO Allen Lew issued a public apology.
SBS will also the Group H Poland versus Senegal and Group A Russia versus Egypt games taking place overnight on Tuesday-Wednesday.
The new games for SBS are in addition to the matches the network already had the rights to.
The SBS announcement said: “The FIFA World Cup is a true multicultural celebration that unites Australia’s diverse communities and SBS is pleased to be bringing more of the tournament to Australian audiences.”
Lew was unable to say if subscribers who had paid $15 to access Optus Sport during the World Cup would get refunds, saying an announcement would be made shortly. He noted that some subscribers had received FetchTV boxes to help them manage poor connections.
The Optus CEO was adamant that the brand would not be affected in the long term by the weekend’s embarrassments, saying: “We believe the brand is stronger than one event over three days and we will recover and we will prove to Australia we can be a credible multi-media company.
“This is something everyone is disappointed with. We can and will do better and we will turn around the situation
“The strategy for us is a three year plan. We will get there, there will be hiccups along the way, we are a stronger organisation and we will bounce back from hiccups. We will learn from this, and we will benefit from this.”
Not only did they move a game that people LOVE and wait four years to watch behind a behind wall, they FAILED at doing so.
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All other sports need to look at this as a case study.
Rights and achieving some magical/mythical tranche of revenue for their codes is no doubt important, but what at what cost when no one can actually access the content?
Football in Australia needs more exposure, not less.
So while this seems to be a great way to squeeze short term revenue from existing fans (along with the EPL and other leagues Optus Sport have the rights to) I can’t see how this grows football. So sure, Optus might win with subscriptions in 2018 but FIFA and the FFA ultimately lose as other sports, hobbies and interests that people can actually experience win out for future generations of fans.
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How they didn’t see this coming was mindblowing. They have stuffed up the English Premier League access to Australians in exactly the same manner. If you’re lucky, you will get a clear picture, if you’re not it’s buffering delays and/or clear sound but a picture so fuzzy you can’t even make out the ball. It once took me one hour and twenty seven minutes to watch a fifty two minute highlights show such was the poor connection. When I phoned to complain, I was told, “yes, we’ve had a lot more people take up the service in your area and at peak times we’re struggling to handle the load”. My area has a massive participation rate for junior and senior soccer and a large ex-pat English population and I was flabbergasted that they were caught unawares. Two years later and the EPL service is still abysmal.
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