Happily the Socceroos got the job done on the pitch on Saturday with a nail-biting 1-0 win, to set up a showdown with Denmark at 2am on Thursday, while SBS was equally impressive as a broadcaster.
Saturday night’s match was viewer-friendly, with a 9pm kickoff (AEDT), and it delivered SBS its highest rated program on its traditional linear channel so far in 2022, with an average of 1.34 million viewers; whereas 386,000 live-streamed the match via SBS On Demand.
SBS said it won the night with a 25.9 per cent prime time free-to-air audience share in metropolitan areas on its primary channel, and a network share of 29.2 per cent.
This time around SBS is the sole broadcaster of the World Cup, with Optus having put its eggs in other football baskets, and after the first week, it can be pretty happy with its performance.
Its platforms have worked at the basic level, and nobody has had to make up a nasty Twitter hashtag to curse the company’s name.
On the pitch there have been a few too many 0-0 draws for the casual fan’s liking, but there have also been a couple of big upsets, and stylish performances from well-supported teams like England, France, Brazil and Spain.
The potential for Australia to make it through the group stage with a draw against Denmark will also do wonders for widespread local interest.
SBS does have an advantage in the tech failure stakes over Optus, in that it has a trusty free-to-air TV option for most Australians, to spread the demand on big matches.
But it has also made some tech trade-offs to save money and hedge its bets against a tech crash in its digital offerings.
SBS’ coverage has lacked some features regular football watchers have become accustomed to, from the likes of Optus and Stan, which has the rights to the UEFA Champions League. Stan is owned by Nine Entertainment, which also owns The Australian Financial Review.
Most obviously missing is an ability to start a stream of an ongoing live match from the beginning, or to fast-forward or rewind the coverage in a live match.
This is a big omission for matches that start at non-viewer-friendly hours, and is a popular feature in Optus’ Premier League coverage, for example.
Starting coverage from multiple points was a technical pain point initially for Optus, too, and SBS did test out ways to add it into the pre-existing SBS On-Demand platform it is using for its World Cup coverage, but its tech team found it problematic with digital ad insertion.
Farnham’s team is aware of the omission, though, and the idea is on the backburner for potential future sports coverage on its app, rather than discarded.
High definition?
Meanwhile, some viewers have complained about the picture quality on the streams. Its highest quality stream is a maximum 720p, which is counted as high-definition, but can look a bit blocky on some bigger TVs.
The HD TV channels are providing sharper pictures, but on its app, the 720p is a noticeable drop-off from 1080p more commonly found elsewhere.
Farnham says he has taken on board the feedback that some viewers are dissatisfied with picture resolution, but that it was a necessary trade-off based on a need to provide free viewing to customers across the whole country.
“When deciding whether to support 1080p HD for World Cup matches on SBS On Demand, we had to consider a number of factors such as ensuring we could provide a stream that’s accessible to all audiences with differing network capabilities and devices, as well as the significant cost involved to both store 1080p HD content and to upgrade our infrastructure,” he says.
“Paid subscription services often charge extra for increased stream quality. SBS is not unlike some other free-to-air Australian broadcasters who also offer international sporting events online at 720p HD.”
Good enough
As a regular football viewer, who often watches bleary-eyed in bed on a phone, the resolution has been perfectly good for me during the World Cup regardless.
SBS’ in-studio coverage has been first class, its app is actually easier to navigate for its football coverage than Stan’s, and it has thankfully avoided the common online peril of unavoidable spoilers for on-demand matches and highlights.
It seems to be doing all right out of it commercially too, by the number of unskippable ads that are an irritation, but probably understandable in a free service.
