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The World Cup is off to an entertaining start – for those of us lucky enough to actually see any of it on Optus Sport.
“I apologise unreservedly to all Australians,” Optus chief executive Allen Lew told Fairfax Media when contacted on Sunday after the third night in a row of World Cup streaming problems.
“We should have done better, we can do better and we will do better.”
What Lew forgot to add is that, in my opinion, his company doesn’t actually care if fans enjoy a world-class viewing experience watching through Optus or not.
They’ve already got our money – and with the federal government reacting with indifference to the thought of World Cup games moving from free-to-air TV to a telecommunications company with a patchy record of broadcasting live sport, Optus will be well aware there’s no real penalty for failing to provide the service they’ve already charged consumers for.
» See who to tip tonight in our World Cup expert tips column
They’re content to simply tweet a new apology every night, promise to do better the next day and then watch as every single piece of infrastructure required to actually stream the vision back from Russia strains under the sheer volume of people trying to tune in.
Lew laughably claimed the “unprecedented demand” for content was the reason most fans can’t tune in for longer than five minutes without the streams crashing – because it’s not like a lot of Aussies have ever tuned into a World Cup before.
For this sort of insight, he’s paid more than $5 million per year.
Lew promised the problems would be fixed by Sunday night and that Optus viewers would have no such problems tuning into the clash between Serbia and Costa Rica from 10pm.
The reality, of course, was nothing of the sort.
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Still, the fact that Optus Sport is patently incapable of actually showing the World Cup won’t stop the company’s apologists from defending them to the hilt.
There’s a section of fans who want streaming to supplant traditional broadcasting methods. The fact that the Optus platform doesn’t work properly isn’t enough to dissuade them from claiming the technology is superior.
I’ve tried to watch games on my laptop and phone every night, and I’ve tried to stream highlights through my Chromecast the following morning. It crashes every time.
At least things are working in Russia, and you could have put money on the Socceroos being the first team at a World Cup to fall foul of the VAR.
When I tweeted on Saturday that there always seems to be one rule for big nations and another rule for the rest of us, I was informed in no uncertain terms that I should “shut up”.
I don’t have a problem with people disagreeing with me – if you put an opinion out there, you need to be prepared to get it back.
However, it’s interesting that much of the discourse around the Socceroos seem to revolve around putting Australians in their place.
Sure, Mat Leckie was booked for practically his first challenge of the game while Samuel Umtiti avoided the same sanction for a deliberate handball.
And yeah, Josh Risdon seemed to get a piece of the ball when giving away the penalty – so it wasn’t a ‘clear and obvious error’ to avoid awarding a spot-kick in the first place.
It’s also true Antoine Griezmann was named the man of the match despite being dominated by Trent Sainsbury and going off with more than 20 minutes to play.
But if you can’t say anything nice about FIFA – and you’re an Aussie – then don’t say anything at all.
Fortunately, I’m happy to admit that, streaming issues aside, I’ve enjoyed much of what I’ve seen so far.
Iceland’s heroic 1-1 draw with Argentina was absorbing stuff, and Aleksandar Kolarov’s free-kick last night was straight out of the top drawer.
The football has been great so far. Now only if there was an easy way to watch it.