Football world cup matches in Australia are to be broadcast on free to air television for the nex two days after a wave of complaints the subscription streaming service provided by Optus.
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.
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Optus chief executive Allen Lew says the telecommunication company will use the two days of simulcasting to come up with a "robust solution" and that the demand when Australia kicked off their world cup campaign against France was no reason for the mistakes they made.
"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."
Australia midfielder Aaron Mooy battles for the ball against France's Nabil Fekir in their opening World Cup match. Photo: Photosport
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."
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.
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.
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.
Screenshot of Optus Sport playback error
Photo: 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."
-ABC
