Sports fans have slammed Channel Seven over its "woeful" Rio Olympics digital streaming services, which were beset with technical glitches over the opening weekend.
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Bringing the Olympics to Australian screens
It's an Olympic effort to bring the games to life.... Fairfax Media's Sam Lane takes you behind the scenes at Seven Network's studios as they attempt to broadcast the biggest sporting event on earth.
The network, which has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in Australia, has been inundated with complaints from fans who say its mobile app and website continually crash.
Channel Seven is showing the Games on three digital television channels and streaming the live coverage online.
Viewers can also pay $20 for "premium access", which includes 36 channels and promises coverage of every event and on-demand replays, via its app and website.
But users say both the free and premium services are plagued with issues.
#7Olympics @Channel7 your app is utter garbage. Streaming not working at all for past 24 hours
— Brad Jorgo (@bjorgo) August 7, 2016
"Your mobile app is absolutely woeful. I spend most of my time looking at the load screen. What a waste of $19.95. Don't promise on something you can't deliver or fix it quick smart," wrote Will Dennis, who was one of dozens to complain on Seven's Facebook page.
Have given up on 7's app. Now watching excellent coverage on BBC via a VPN. And no repetitious ads #7Olympics
— Launceston Lad (@launcestonlad) August 7, 2016
Will Millsteed demanded that Seven "either improve today or want my money back".
"Can I have my $20 back [for] premium access? So far have been able to watch 3 mins of event I wanted," another fan wrote.
Big congrats to #7Olympics for setting an Olympic Record for most app crashes!
— deano (@deank88) August 7, 2016
Other customers complained of commentary being absent during the swimming finals and a number of fans said they had resorted to streaming international broadcasters' coverage via a VPN.
The Olympics on 7 app has an average rating of 1.5 stars out of five on both Google and Apple's app stores.
Seven's standard response to complaints via their Twitter and Facebook feeds was: "We are aware of issues w/ the app & website streams. Tech team is working hard to resolve. Thanks for your patience."
That raised questions from some users about why Channel Seven would continue to accept payments for the app while it wasn't working.
Seven said there was an "international problem" caused by the unprecedented demand for digital streaming of the Games.
"Our streaming partners – Olympic Broadcasting Services in Rio and [content delivery service] Akamai – have assured us they are doing everything they can to avoid a repeat of any problems," a network spokeswoman said.
The third-party video provider's troubles hit streaming services in 13 countries, including New Zealand, Holland, Canada and Finland, she said.
Channel Seven had 2.8 million streams on Sunday, smashing the previous record of 843,000 during last year's Australian Open.
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