KARL Stefanovic has joined the chorus of outrage at Optus Sport’s ongoing World Cup streaming nightmare.

Technical issues continued to plague the broadcaster for the third night in a row, despite promises the problems would be fixed on Sunday.

Today Show host Stefanovic slammed Optus as “hopeless” on Monday morning, declaring the company should hand back the rights to the tournament if the issues weren’t fixed immediately.

“The tournament comes around once every four years. It’s the biggest sporting event in the world. It’s the biggest show in town,” Stefanovic said.

“Instead of watching the World Cup, we are watching ‘playback error’ on our phones.

“Many were sceptical when Optus acquired the rights to the World Cup, many thought they wouldn't be up to it. Well, nearly a week in they are proving the sceptics right.

“Optus is hopeless.

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“Optus is hopeless…If you can’t get your satellites together then let SBS do it, or Nine, or my uncle Rob who could do a better job hanging a coat hanger from the Edmonton Bowls Club in Far North Queensland. Get it right. This is too big a deal to stuff up.” #9Today pic.twitter.com/q1C2lVG0nS — The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) June 17, 2018

“If you can’t deliver the product you are selling, you go out of business.

“The problem is no one else can sell it, they don’t have the rights. Optus has the rights.

“I’m wracking my brain to think when SBS ever had a problem with the broadcasting of the World Cup, ever. Optus, you are in telecommunications. If you can’t get your satellites together then let SBS do it, or Nine, or my uncle Rob who could do a better job hanging a coathanger from the Edmonton Bowls Club in far North Queensland.

“Get it right. This is far too big a deal to stuff up.”

Only a matter of moments into Sunday night’s opening encounter between Serbia and Costa Rica, the lingering streaming issue reared its ugly head again.

A message stating there was a “playback error” appeared and forced users to miss the contest.

The venting on social media didn’t take long to reach hysterical heights.

Optus Sport should refund everybody for this World cup. #joke — Chad Perris (@chadperris) June 17, 2018

#DroptusSport is actually getting worse. Somehow. I didn't even think that was possible. #OptusSport — Scott Pryde (@sk_pryde) June 17, 2018

A series of disasters prompted Optus chief executive Allen Lew to offer disgruntled Aussie viewers a bold guarantee that the spluttering, buffering technical issues and faulty Chromecast links would be fixed by Sunday night (AEST).

“I apologise unreservedly to all Australians,” Lew told Fairfax Media.

“We should have done better, we can do better and we will do better.

“Australians can be assured that this has my personal attention, and the entire network team’s attention, and we will solve it. We will solve this problem by the end of this evening.”

Unfortunately for Mr Lew, Sunday night arrived and the lingering streaming issues not only persisted, but it appeared no fixes had been implemented.

Association Football is precarious in Australia. It relies heavily on the quadrennial World Cup bounce. That is now completely gone. @Optus and @SBS are destroying the game. — Patrick Avenell (@Patrickavenell) June 17, 2018

Optus Sport would currently have a better reputation if they'd not had the rights, than buggering them up like currently happening. Nightly ritual continues of reading outrage on here from paying customers. — Adam Hill (@adamhillmedia) June 17, 2018

In addition to @optus being unable to provide a reliable service, what footage we can watch is sub-HD quality and several minutes behind live play, making social media impossible. Only solution is to give live rights back to SBS and have Optus as a catch-up service. — Patrick Avenell (@Patrickavenell) June 17, 2018

The host broadcaster enraged fans on Friday night as they continued to tweet out updates from the ongoing clash between Egypt and Uruguay instead of addressing the stream issues.

They have learned from their mistakes on that front as they were quick to respond to fans’ outrage and stated the best option for fans would be to download the official World Cup app.

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

Optus Sport then issued another statement on Twitter:

“We are aware that some users are currently experiencing technical difficulties during the Costa Rica-Serbia game,” it wrote.

“Our tech teams are working urgently to fix this.”

Sadly the constant issues which have plagued the global game’s marquee tournament have left fans severely enraged with one stating “Surely this is the end for @OptusSport”.

Optus Sport had earlier attempted to pin the ongoing issues on other providers, claiming its network did not have any issues.

An Optus spokeswoman on Saturday stated they believed the “vast majority of viewers were not impacted and had a good viewing experience,” a spokeswoman said.

“However, some customers who watched the match on the Optus Sport app, on certain devices through other telco networks, experienced buffering issues.”

The persistent issues has left Socceroos legends, TV personalities and fans enraged, with former Socceroo and now Fox Sports personality Robbie Slater leading the charge in savaging the company.

Ok enough his enough ! It’s time the government gets involved and get the games back to @SBSSport ! Does anyone care ? Unacceptable — Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) June 17, 2018

Time for @TurnbullMalcolm and everyone else involved to fix this unacceptable non coverage of the @FIFAWorldCup ! Shameful — Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) June 17, 2018

Dear @OptusSport The only way out is to hand over your #WorldCup coverage to a proper TV network. Surely, otherwise, the loss of goodwill is catastrophic. Not to mention the simple decency of allowing football fans to watch the world’s biggest sporting event. Please? — Richard Hinds (@rdhinds) June 17, 2018

While the rest of the world is enjoying the World Cup on FTA, Australian fans are being told to pay money to watch games on a mobile phone screen as host broadcaster @OptusSport doesn't know how to broadcast.



Pathetic — Richard Ings (@ringsau) June 17, 2018

With faith in the telco now at an all-time low, the host broadcaster now has a long way to go to win back football fans.