SBS Will Air All World Cup Matches for Next 48 Hrs; Optus Offering Affected Viewers Freebies

Sweet relief.

After getting a national drubbing from soccer fans and the actual Prime Minister for their technical issues, Optus has found a temporary World Cup broadcast solution with the help of SBS.

"Following discussions with Optus Sport, we have agreed that SBS will air all 2018 FIFA World Cup games for the next 48 hours," SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid said in a statement.

SBS was previously only able to show a select few games after onselling broadcast rights to Optus Sport for a reported $8 million.

However, many Optus subscribers (and others who paid for a $15 package to stream the additional games) have complained of buffering and severe technical issues.

When it's 5:30am and you get hit with that black buffering screen #FLOPtusSport pic.twitter.com/73qdB4guW7

— Sam Bradbrook (@Sambradbrook) June 17, 2018

Hey @OptusSport good to see you have fixed your coverage, nice work there.. #FLOPtusSport #optusfail pic.twitter.com/Xa0stvpxaN

— Tom Kroyer (@TomBYL) June 17, 2018

Even PM Turnbull stepped in to tell Optus to sort out the situation.

They’ve done so by giving free-to-air SBS an "additional four games" over the next two days.

Optus CEO Allen Lew has also apologised to all Australians.

"We should have been able to anticipate the demand a lot better but we obviously did not," he said.

"We now understand the kind of demand you can expect from a short, international competition, and that will be a learning point for us as we proceed."

Optus is also offering free Fetch Mini set top boxes for customers who "didn’t have a great experience watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup". If that’s you, head here to see how you can score yours.

Remember, the Socceroos face off against Denmark this Thursday evening on SBS at 10pm AEST.

Photo: Twitter (@Socceroos) & iStock.com/wundervisuals & iStock.com/Chunumunu