SINGAPORE: StarHub said on Monday (Aug 8) that preliminary investigations indicated that its network was “not tuned to react to the sudden surge of concurrent users”, after customers reported a host of issues with its Premier League broadcast on the season’s opening weekend.
Angry football fans had taken to social media since Saturday to vent their frustrations, noting issues such as broadcast lags, freezes on their screens and poor video and audio quality.
Some users also said they could not log on to the StarHub TV+ app.
In response to CNA’s queries on Monday, StarHub said: “Preliminary investigations indicate that the network was not tuned to react to the sudden surge of concurrent users. This triggered error messages on some of our customers’ devices and affected broadcast quality for them.”
When asked by CNA, the telco did not address the issue of compensation for affected users.
It confirmed that the issues were isolated to the OTT, or over-the-top, streaming of the Premier League; and that their Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) service remained “robust throughout”.
“There was smooth broadcast at our ‘live’ community screening at Our Tampines Hub, which was delivered via IPTV,” said StarHub.
The company added that there were fewer reports relating to the OTT streaming of Premier League matches on Sunday.
“We are heartened that many of the teething issues encountered by customers on Aug 6 were resolved for yesterday’s games,” StarHub said.
“However, we will continue to work hard to address technical issues faced by some customers and improve the viewing experience.”