OPTUS has waved the white flag and surrendered all exclusive rights to the World Cup group stages following the streaming disaster with SBS coming to their rescue yet again.
Just days after Optus announced a 48-hour bailout from SBS while it attempted to resolve a series of disruptions that plagued fans throughout the opening weekend of the World Cup, it has been confirmed that all remaining group matches will be simulcast by SBS and “Floptus.”

It is yet to be confirmed if Optus will retain its exclusive rights to two of the last 16 matches as well as half of the quarter-final clashes.

Optus chief executive Allen Law said the company “deeply regretted” they had not met fan expectations and promised customers would have their $15 fee refunded - which will also allow them to watch the first fortnight of the EPL for free.

“We have learnt from that issue,” he said in reference to the coder issues that caused the outage.

“We are confident in our capabilities and are ready to back our product.

“Over the last 24 hours we have introduced a range of measures to address the technical issues experienced by some viewers.”

A statement released by SBS said on Wednesday: “Following further discussions with Optus today, it has been mutually agreed that SBS will continue simulcasting the 2018 FIFA World Cup until the end of Group Stage on Friday 29 June, bringing more football to Australian audiences.”

Michael Ebeid AM, CEO and Managing Director, SBS said, “The FIFA World Cup is the absolute pinnacle of football, a sport that Australians are deeply passionate about. SBS looks forward to continuing to simulcast the games, together with Optus over the next ten days.”

Optus Sport bought broadcast rights for most World Cup games from SBS, although all Australian matches and the World Cup final remain on SBS.

The technical issues - which have infuriated fans nationwide - include poor-quality match footage or no vision at all, prompting complaints from those who paid to subscribe to the service.

At one stage even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull weighed in and took the unusual step of contacting Lew, wanting assurances the problems would be fixed. It was then that the initial 48-hour reprieve was agreed to.

“There’s no doubt this has adversely affected the Optus brand ... everybody is very disappointed, to put it mildly,” an apologetic Lew said earlier this week.

“We will use the two days we have ... to robustly test the systems under different loads. We believe by that time we will have the technical issues resolved.”