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 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 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." Loading 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. Loading 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. Loading 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 Sport customers voiced their dismay over the weekend about playback errors during the World Cup. ( Supplied 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."<doc-sep>Optus Sport's World Cup disaster and how Tony Abbott made it happen A weekend of technical difficulties inevitably has some political roots It is the world's biggest sporting event, but Australians have been unable to freely watch the 2018 World Cup over the weekend as Optus Sport struggles with technical difficulties. Having secured broadcasting rights to every game in Russia, Optus Sport shunted traditional broadcaster SBS to second fiddle but have so far been unable to handle the burden. Due to supposed IOS issues, frustrated football fans have been unable to access some matches with streams also regularly interrupted as the World Cup quickly turns into a nightmare for Optus. Social media has been flooded with angry messages with former Socceroo Robbie Slater leading the charge and even urging the Australian Prime Minister to intervene. — Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) June 17, 2018 — Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) June 17, 2018 As Optus buckles under the pressure, SBS shined on Saturday as their broadcast of Australia's clash with France attracted a peak audience of 3.4 million. SBS have previously shown all games of World Cups but will only shown 25 in Russia after being forced into a deal with Optus. As pointed out by John Stensholt in The Australian Financial Review, SBS secured a deal with FIFA all the way back in 2011 for the right to broadcast both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for an estimated $20 million each. Four years later however, with Tony Abbott leading a Coalition government desperate to make funding cuts, SBS found themselves in need of some savings and Optus Sport was there at the right time. Having just tripled what Fox Sports were paying for the rights to broadcast the English Premier League, Optus struck a reported $8 million deal with SBS that would see the two share broadcasting responsibilities of the 2018 World Cup. Fast forward to today, and calls have inevitably begun for Optus to hand SBS the full rights to televise the tournament as frustration mounts. — Dave Hughes (@DHughesy) June 16, 2018 Logistically and financially very unlikely however, Optus simply must put the flames out as it looks to establish itself as a reliable football broadcaster Down Under. Article continues below "I apologise unreservedly to all Australians," Optus CEO Allen Lew told Fairfax Media on Sunday. "We should have done better, we can do better and we will do better." Having retained the rights to the English Premier League and very close to securing a deal for the Champions League, the telco needs to turn the vitriol around before the company, and more importantly the beautiful game, is damaged irreparably in Australia.<doc-sep>Only hours after Optus chief executive Allen Lew offered an apology for the many problems that have plagued the telco's early World Cup coverage, users again were forced to vent their frustration as another match proved unwatchable due to technical issues. From the first full night of competition, football fans across Australia found themselves unable to watch matches from the world's biggest sporting event as system crashes and playback errors affected the company's mobile app and desktop site. Optus has full Australian broadcast rights to the 2018 World Cup — with free-to-air channel SBS able to show Australian matches and a selection of group and knockout games — and charges $15 a month for subscriptions to the streaming service. On Sunday afternoon, after days of heavy criticism from football fans across the country, Mr Lew apologised "unreservedly to all Australians" citing "unprecedented demand". "We should have done better, we can do better and we will do better," he said. "Australians can be assured that this has my personal attention, and the entire network team's attention, and we will solve it. "We will solve this problem by the end of this evening." But when it came to kick-off time for the first match of the day, between Costa Rica and Serbia, the same problems resurfaced and even extended to Fetch, Optus's set top box service for TV. On Twitter, Optus recognised that "some users" were experiencing technical difficulties, and suggested using another app as a workaround. Loading But that has done little to ease frustrations of football fans unable to watch the game's greatest event. Loading Loading<doc-sep>
SBS has announced that it will broadcast all World Cup games for the the next 48 hours following anger among football fans at repeated disruptions to Optus Sport’s World Cup coverage. The head of Optus, Allen Lew, was forced to apologise to fans on Sunday after broadband streaming problems marred coverage of the tournament’s opening games. As well as showing Tunisia v England at 4am AEST and Colombia v Japan at 10pm AEST on Tuesday, the public broadcaster will also air Sweden v Korea Republic 10pm on Monday, Belgium v Panama at 1am AEST on Tuesday, and Poland v Senegal at 1am and Russia v Egypt at 4am AEST on Wednesday. Fans criticised Optus on social media and on Monday the prime minister stepped into the debate saying Lew had told him he was confident the problems would be fixed for Monday night’s games. “We know Australian football fans are amongst the world’s most passionate, and vocal, and we clearly understand Australia’s passion for this major event, and the frustration that goes along with not being able to watch the event,” Lew said in a statement on Monday evening. “In light of this Optus has announced that it will simulcast the next two nights of 2018 Fifa World Cup matches with SBS. This decision has been made with the interests of football fans across Australia in mind.” Lew offered an “unreserved apology” and said a dedicated team had been working to address the issues. “We are confident that we have a solution in place and will be using this time to undertake robust testing of all systems,” he said. Lew added that Optus would make a number of Fetch Mini boxes available to customers “where appropriate”. The issue of the poor coverage was also raised in parliament with Labor MP Stephen Jones claiming in question time that Turnbull was warned when he was communications minister that cuts to SBS could damage its coverage of the World Cup. Turnbull did not respond to the question on cuts, but said he had spoken to Lew about Optus’s coverage. “He was of the knowledge as they have had some real problems with streaming from the Optus program. He believes he can fix it and it will be fixed tonight and obviously as the fans will be expecting Optus to deliver in that regard.” Sign up to receive the latest Australian sports stories every day Optus has blamed the dropouts in its service on “an extremely high number of viewers logging into our platforms just before kick-off causing some systems to overload”. Feed disruptions plagued coverage of the first match to be shown exclusively on Optus – Uruguay against Egypt – on Friday night. Irate viewers vented their frustrations on Twitter, coining the #FloptusSport hashtag. Some fans who watched the Socceroos take on France on Saturday night using the Optus Sport app also had buffering issues. And on Sunday night, more fans complained about coverage disruption during the game between Costa Rica and Serbia. One subscriber, Skilla13, trying to watch Sunday night’s clash between Germany and Mexico, wrote: “This is a disgrace by Optus. Should give everyone their money back.” Another fan compared the technical problems to those experienced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics during the 2016 census. “Congratulations #Optus. You’ve incredibly found a way to make the 2016 Census look like a successful online operation,” Marko tweeted. The Australian broadcasting rights to the tournament are being shared by Optus Sport and free-to-air network SBS. The long-term home of Australian football, SBS, originally had the rights to one match a night and every match from the quarter-final stage onwards, as well as each Socceroos contest. Optus is providing their matches as a package for $15, or as part of mobile subscription packages.