Outrage over Optus Sport’s World Cup streaming issues has gone all the way to the top, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull involving himself in the saga that has frustrated football fans around the country.
SBS onsold broadcast rights for most World Cup games to Optus, with the Australian Financial Review reporting that deal was worth approximately $8 million.
However, technical issues mean a number of subscribers have been unable to watch matches.
Optus chief executive Allen Lew apologised “unreservedly to all Australians” on Sunday, but there were further problems on Sunday night.
Mr Turnbull has reached out to Mr Lew regarding the network’s streaming issues.
“I have a call into Allen Lew at Optus – I hope to speak to him later on today – to seek his assurances that the failure in the streaming service has been rectified,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.
An Optus spokesperson claimed “the majority of customers are having a good broadcast experience during the World Cup”.
“We apologise to those customers affected and reassure them our team is working around the clock to ensure that we are delivering an excellent broadcast service to all Optus Sport viewers,” the spokesperson said.
“Given the individual nature of some customer issues, we are working with customers directly to address their concerns.”
SBS chief executive Michael Ebeid suggested his network is open to the idea of having a conversation with Optus “about how we can help them further, in terms of putting some of those games on our channels”.
“(In the next) 24 hours, I think they’ll need to take a good hard look at where they’re at in terms of fixing the problem,” Mr Ebeid told radio station SEN.
“From the conversations I’ve had with Optus, they seem very confident it’s down to a very small number of users.
“Optus states the number of people affected are less than five per cent of their viewerships.”
UPDATE:
Turnbull has tweeted a story we heard yesterday. Mr Lew believes the problems will be solved by tonight.
I have spoken with the Optus CEO, Allen Lew. He assures me he is giving the World Cup streaming problems his personal attention and he believes it will be fixed this evening.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) June 18, 2018
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