St George and Sutherland Shire football fans rejoice!
SBS will be allowed to broadcast all FIFA World Cup games until the end of the group stage of the tournament because embattled telco Optus cannot overcome technical issues that have beset its attempt to stream games to its customers.
Optus chief executive Allen Lew said today the company "deeply regretted" service had not been up to the standard expected and would allow SBS to continue to broadcast group games from Russia.
"We have listened to the feedback from Australian soccer fans," he said.
Mr Lew said the thousands of customers who had paid for the service would now have their $15 fee refunded.
Optus would work with the advertisers who had bought packages targetting the telco's customers on a case by case basis, he said.
A final decision had not yet been made on whether Optus would exclusively broadcast games from the round of 16 and beyond, he said.
In the meantime Optus would offer free access to its sports streaming service until August 31, he said.
“The reason why we have announced what we did today is that the feedback from all Australians is that they want to have choice, so we've decided to listen to Australians and given them that choice, rather than forcing them to take our product, we have given them the choice to come to our product which we believe in. We believe that when people come to our product they will enjoy," he said.
Mr Lew said the company had identified an issue between an "encoder and a packager" as the root cause of its problems.
Angry consumers online were calling for Optus to refund customers who have purchased the World Cup streaming package.
Optus surrendered its exclusive broadcast rights to SBS on Monday for a 48-hour period after customers experienced widespread service interruptions during the tournament's opening weekend.
That hiatus was due to end on Wednesday night with the first match scheduled for kick-off at 10pm (AEST) between Portugal and Morocco.
But the arrangement with SBS was extended today as the embattled telco struggled to get on top of the technical issues hampering its attempt to stream games to its customers.
SBS chief executive Michael Ebeid said the network looked forward to screening the group stage games for the next ten days.
"The FIFA World Cup is the absolute pinnacle of football, a sport are deeply passionate about," he said.
The announcement and offer of compensation came as the issue sparked a political brawl over consumer rights and funding for SBS.
SBS sub-licenced rights to Optus after it decided it could not afford to bid for the entire tournament as it had in the past.