Nine has suffered its own “Optus World Cup” moment after its live stream of last night’s Origin match failed due to viewer demand.
The network – who has sole rights to Origin, one of the biggest TV events of the year – touted its stream on its 9Now app as “We’ve got you covered for all the #Origin action”.
However, fans were left fuming when they were unable to watch most of the first half of the game before the technical glitches were rectified.
Some fans reported seeing nothing at all, while others only got the shaky “spider cam” cameras worn by the referees. Strangely, the ads apparently played perfectly.
A spokesperson for Nine telling B&T: “9Now had a technical issue with one of our service providers last night. As soon as the source of the issue was identified, we worked as quickly as possible to fix the service which in total was impacted for around 30 minutes. We apologise for any inconvenience and have put plans in place to prevent similar technical errors.”
But the social media retribution was swift and fast.
“Epic fail!! Right on kickoff,” fumed one angry fan.
“About the same coverage as using a fishing net as an umbrella. This service is deplorable. Surely it’s someone’s job to ensure this platform is able to cope with excessive demand. What a joke,” raged another.
“Wow Nine now this is rubbish its freezing up. Maybe you should fix it or test things before big events like this,” penned another.
Another fumed: “Can confirm the stream is a pile of hot mess. Doesn’t matter what platform I use, everything fails. Good work 9now.”
“Good job on ruining Origin. Give it to Foxtel already,” penned another.
“This is absolute toilet. If I knew you were incompetent I would have made other plans. But too late now, Origin ruined,” said another cranky viewer.
