As English Premier League fans suffer at the hands of Optus, the ACCC needs to intervene when broadcasters and telcos can’t deliver on their streaming sports promises.
Having endured Seven’s flaky Olympics streaming app, Aussie sports fans were in for another rude shock on the weekend when Optus’ new EPL streaming service left them locked out of the match.
Many subscribers reported appalling picture quality, regular crashes by the smartphone app and difficulty logging into the service — even on Saturday night when the Leicester City v Hull City match was simulcast on SBS.
Sunday night’s clash between Manchester United and Bournemouth was only available on Optus Sport, with unhappy fans venting their anger at the telco on Facebook and Twitter under the #OptusOut hashtag. One interruption early in the match was due to a technical fault with the feed from the ground, over which Optus has no control, but that doesn’t excuse all the difficulties that fans experienced trying to watch the EPL over the weekend.
The ACCC recently announced an inquiry into the inability of Australian ISPs to reliably deliver on their speed promises, but this needs to be expanded to cover broadcasters and telcos like Seven and Optus locking away streaming rights when they’re clearly not capable of delivering a service which is fit for purpose. Especially when EPL fans are forced to sign up as an Optus customer if they want to see their team play live each week, but then can’t watch the match.
It doesn’t bode well for Australian sports fans when broadcasters are pushing streaming video as the future but they can’t be trusted with high-profile events like the Olympics and English Premier League. Imagine if the AFL was at stake, you can be sure heads would roll within days. All sporting fans deserve the same respect.
EPL fans also complained about the 60-second delay on the stream, meaning that social media was alerting them to goals before they saw the action on the screen. Unfortunately that’s the nature of video streaming, it’s never going to be in sync with a traditional broadcast service — the best you can hope for is a 30-second lag.
Some people will want to blame the country’s hotchpotch broadband infrastructure for Optus’ streaming woes but the connection to your house isn’t the problem here — the problem is that the streaming services aren’t investing enough in their apps and streaming infrastructure to meet demand. Just like #CensusFail, they have a responsibility to be prepared when millions of Australians turn up on their doorstep.
Fetch TV proved that it can be done right, with the Optus Sport EPL streaming channels on the Fetch TV set-top boxes performing much better than the Optus Sport smartphone app over the weekend.
Experience clearly counts, as Fetch TV has been streaming IPTV channels for years and is using the new bandwidth-efficient HEVC video codec to offer a better picture on slow internet connections. Right now Fetch TV is looking like the big winner out of all this, with EPL fans likely to rush out and buy a Fetch TV Mini or Mighty set-top box.
The ACCC shouldn’t tolerate broadcasters and telcos treating some sports fans as second-class citizens. Were you struck by Seven and Optus’ streaming woes? Do you expect your money back?
