Fans outrage against poor FIFA World Cup live streaming

Host nation Qatar was handed a 0-2 defeat by Ecuador in the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 on Sunday as Enner Valencia made this edition the first ever where the opening goal was scored from the penalty spot. However, many fans in India weren't able to witness this.

As the match kicked-off, there were irritated football fans across the country complaining on micro-blogging platform Twitter about the botched up streaming provided by the JioCinema platform.

It was about a week prior to the tournament's start that it was reported that Viacom18's sports content would move its base from Voot to the newly-introduced JioCinema. However, opening day saw a disaster unfold for many fans without access to cable television.

On mobile phones, while the viewing is free of cost, and available across all service-providers, it didn't help that the live stream on the Jio app seemed to refuse to play without interruption. Some found a workaround of switching to regional feeds from the English one, but even this, while not providing as many lags, was still at a slowed-down pace.

Voot, where it had originally been announced that the World Cup would be streamed, was seen to be actually streaming the match, but the commentary was available only in Hindi.

For fans without access to TV who opt to not watch the World Cup on their mobile phones, the only solution for now seems to be to go down the rabbit hole of illegal streaming platforms or to listen to Hindi commentary on Voot.