By GERARD ESCAICH I FOLCH 

Optus has been criticised widely for signal disruption and for its coverage’s slight delay behind official Premier League team social media coverage, and social networks have become the main vehicle for viewers to express their feelings.

The 2016/17 season marks the first time the English competition has been solely broadcast by a telecommunications provider following Optus’ surprising successful bid over Foxtel.

Over the next three seasons, Optus is the holder for the Premier League’s (EPL) TV rights in Australia. This means – barring any further developments – they will be the only authorised partner to live broadcast Premier League fixtures.

Despite the fact Optus’s tenure is in its infancy, costumers are complaining to the company about the bad streaming signal, with the #OptusOut hashtag trending constantly across Australia.

Optus spokeswoman Gabrielle Crittenden said the problems were unrelated to internal infrastructure, but were instead a result of the content they were being provided.

“The issue is not related to Optus’ broadcast or the Optus Sport App,” Ms Crittenden said.

“The problem has been caused by our [Premier League] satellite distribution supplier. [In saying that], interest in the Premier League has exceeded our expectations.”

Despite reassurances from the telecommunications provider that the issues – which started from the opening week of competition – will not happen again, difficulties to connect to the service and streaming delays continue.

The problems have lead passionate fans to push their complaints further, all the way to a formal complaint being lodged with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 

How does Optus' Premier League coverage fit in with the world of sports social media?

Monash University’s digital journalism coordinatorJulie Tullberg said the underlying reason  fans took to Twitter to voice their opinions was how it was used in conjunction with other media.

“[Social media] is part of the second screen where people like to document their experience,” Ms Tullberg said.

But experience showed things should improve. Ms Tullberg pointed to the recent example of Netflix’s introduction into Australia.

“In the beginning, the connection was terrible,” she said. “Now this has changed and video-on-demand has improved [Netflix’s] quality.”

Apart from its early hiccups, Netflix achieved almost five million subscribers in its first year, according to Roy Morgan Research released in June.

Ms Tullberg said there would always be TV, but the way it was consumed had changed.

“If I miss the football on TV, it’s OK because I can just look at the videos online. I can get the full match highlights in five minutes,” she said.

There is not an easy way to know how the future in this sector will be, but Ms Tullberg said media companies were looking at strategies to build products for second screens.

This will provide audience members with a dramatic change in their viewing experience watching live TV, in spite of potential hiccups incurred by a continual shift towards online streaming.