So… there’s a pretty major sports tournament that’s going on at the moment. You might have heard of it? The World Cup?
The soccer and gaming have had a close relationship for many a year now. FIFA (and to a lesser extent, PES) are probably the most popular sporting video games on the planet, so we are going somewhere with this, trust me.
My old mates at Optus have been in the shit of late, because there were reportedly serious issues with regards of Optus’s failure to stream World Cup games that people had paid good money to receive.
So much so that the head of Optus, Allen Lew, took to FB to write up a heartfelt apology about the issue at hand.
Now this is all well and good (this whole reply strategy smacks of PR agency crisis mitigation), but I’ve got a little question for old mate Allen…
And for that matter, old mate #MALCOLM, who stepped in personally to help try fix the problem.
I have spoken with the Optus CEO, Allen Lew. He assures me he is giving the World Cup streaming problems his personal attention and he believes it will be fixed this evening.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) June 18, 2018
Here’s the question:
WHAT ABOUT US GAMERS? WHERE’S OUR F*CKING APOLOGY?
Not that I expect this type of response from these blokes on the back of my personal issues with Optus and gaming / streaming, but it would be fair to say that there are a few people in Australia that, like me, have been vocally critical of the NBuNco service provided by Optus.
Take a look at this private message from someone at Optus way back in February, 2017.
Some 16 months later, nothing has changed when it comes to congestion. Same old story at a particular time of evening. EVERY BLOODY NIGHT!!!
Now – back to my original point. From what I understand, the streaming issue with Optus happened when people were trying to stream the Costa Rica v Serbia game from the weekend.
For those users currently experiencing technical difficulties on Optus Sport, please enter your details into the 2018 FIFA World Cup app to watch the Costa Rica-Serbia game while our tech teams work to fix the problem.
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) June 17, 2018
Now – let’s try and work out how many Aussies were affected by said streaming issue? Based on the fact that an average of 2.1 million Aussies tuned in for the Socceroos v France match on Saturday night, it’d be fair to assume that much fewer streamed (well, tried to stream) the Costa Rica game.
3.4m Australians tuned into @sbs last night to cheer on the @Socceroos play France with a peak audience of 2.7m and an average of 2.1m for the whole game, 45% TV share. They played so well. Next stop Denmark Thur 9pm on @SBS @TheWorldGame @FFA
— Michael Ebeid (@michaelebeid) June 16, 2018
Seeing that 2.1 million Aussies on average watched the Australian team on free-to-air, let’s assume that around 500K Aussies tried to stream the Costa Rica game (that’s being generous I reckon, but anyways).
I find it borderline offensive that sports fans who have trouble streaming get a personal apology from the head of Optus for the shitty service.
Even more so when the Prime Minister gets involved.
Where was #MALCOLM last week when old mate Bill Morrow came out and blamed gamers for the bad NBN speeds? Where was his personal intervention then?
Do you reckon that there would be 500K Optus customers in Australia who, like me, have poor speed results and congestion issues at peak times when gaming, streaming, etc? EVERY BLOODY NIGHT!!!!
I reckon there would be…
But nope… no apology for any of that business.
I reckon the final word for this sad, sorry, state of affairs should go to our mates at The Bell Tower Times here in Perth.
Classic banter!
Written by: @dantheinternut
