WatchAFL international streaming service issues

[melbournemartin]

Hello,

Is anyone else using the WatchAFL service to stream AFL games from overseas? I have used this for now 5 years and it has normally been very good. Tonight however, the live streaming has been awful. I either get games in rubbish quality or, if I force a watchable resolution, it is full of buffering.

The website at least says "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with our streaming service. We are working to rectify the issue quickly and restore full service. We apologise for the inconvenience." but I am curious to get other views.

During the JLT series I just watched games on replay, and I did that for Carlton vs Richmond and Essendon vs Adelaide. For both of those games it was okay. It seems that just live games are buggered for now.

I can understand some teething issues but this is not their first season and I do pay almost 200 AUD for this "service".

 

[gavaniacono]

Hello,

Is anyone else using the WatchAFL service to stream AFL games from overseas? I have used this for now 5 years and it has normally been very good. Tonight however, the live streaming has been awful. I either get games in rubbish quality or, if I force a watchable resolution, it is full of buffering.

The website at least says "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with our streaming service. We are working to rectify the issue quickly and restore full service. We apologise for the inconvenience." but I am curious to get other views.

During the JLT series I just watched games on replay, and I did that for Carlton vs Richmond and Essendon vs Adelaide. For both of those games it was okay. It seems that just live games are buggered for now.

I can understand some teething issues but this is not their first season and I do pay almost 200 AUD for this "service".

Yep same here in Hanoi.
There are 2 buttons, play live and play from start. Play live seems worse, play from start a bit better.
Last nights play live link was nearly unwatchable.

 

[Jivlain]

Footage from my stream of the Saints/Lions game:



The issue where every few minutes it decided to reset and skip back an hour or so was fun too.

WatchAFL has been pathetic since Fox took over. They need to be sacked and replaced with a more competent provider.

 

[melbournemartin]

Jesus...

On my computer you just get standard buffering. On my iPad the video will freeze but the audio will continue.

Actually have people coming over to watch the Melbourne vs Geelong game live tomorrow and these clowns may ruin it...

I must say I thought the service was very good last year. More expensive yes but I do like having the ability to watch the various footy shows. Also this year they added the download option for iPad which is nice....but having the ability to watch live games would be nice too!

Make sure you all email their customer support watchafl@foxsports.com.au

 

[Total Power]

Online illegal streams been better, i have sent an abusive email already, i watched the entire Port game at 512k, unwatchable.

 

[Brasher]

And I thought it was just my football team buffering in the last quarter.

Yeah it has been very poor so far this weekend after being better than acceptable last year (and I have to make do with some pretty average hotel internet connections). I can not understand how in this day and age a legal, pay for view, streaming service is allowed to regress their service.

 

[Sylvia Saint]

Yeah it has been pretty shitty for me too. How convenient that it worked perfectly during the free trial then turned to crap after taking my 200 dollars.

 

[funk44]

Currently in Singapore. Been unwatchable since last night

 

[Mr Shankly]

I had a similar issue here in Japan with an Internet speed around 70mb/s. The St Kilda-Brisbane game had constant buffering, but odlly the Port-Freo game was fairly smooth. Hawthorn-Collingwood has been mostly okay as well.

 

[Total Power]

So we are paying 200 for this service? they had a year and a half to sort their shit out and what we get 3rd world ***** service. I am sure Foxtel is using Telsta, there is no telecom company in the world worse than Telstra. All of us deserve free vouchers next year.

 

[Jack Lord]

I've had the same skip-back issues. No one to complain to, of course.

Also, I reckon for that money we should be able to access many seasons worth of past games. All I've got is last year.

 

[hoianbulldog]

Yep same here in Hanoi.
There are 2 buttons, play live and play from start. Play live seems worse, play from start a bit better.
Last nights play live link was nearly unwatchable.

Same here in hoi an.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

Was crap for me watching the Saints/Brisbane game last night as well. Constantly buffering so I'd have to pause and let it load for a few minutes a few times in each quarter but still didn't get good resolution.

 

[ydraw]

Port-Freo game was ok if low quality.

Certainly won't be paying $190 for it.

 

[AbbaRoos]

Terrible service here in Stockholm. Unwatchable with constant buffering. North vs GC ...The actual game was finished 20 minutes before the “live streaming” because of the constant buffering. The final quarter was a complete write off. You can’t charge punters for this service. Kids in the other room happily watching Netflix and dad is watching frozen pictures of rain puddles


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[scatman john]

It's definitely at their end. I'm sure everyone's internet speed is adequate.
It's really frustrating as I'd happily pay an EXTRA $100 and have a perfect stream but as it's stands, I'm definitely going to start using those illegal bootleg sites.
Hearing commentary with frozen vision is the worst - especially when there's some outrageous or important play happening

 

[melbournemartin]

Did it get better in the second half of last nights games?

 

[JP2]

Yeah the quality earlier today was terrible. I don't remember ever having that problem last year, so hopefully it was just some temporary issue with the server or something.

I started browsing through some of the replays just then and was able to get full quality video without any buffering, and they also seem to have taken down the "we apologise for streaming issues" at the top of the page, so hopefully it's been resolved already. I guess the proof will come later today when people live-stream the matches and put it to the test.

 

[melbournemartin]

During the pre-season I did not watch any games live but only on replay and it was fine. It still seems fine on replay but if you can't watch it live....

And yes, I also saw that they took down that warning. Let's hope it is fixed!

 

[Randomizor]

Still had issues watching the Freo Port game. Video would stop but audio would continue. Happened a good 20 - 25 times.

 

[Gydafud]

The Essendon/Crows game played fine, but yesterday all the games were struggling as soon as the quality went up. Kind of glad to know it wasn't just me.

 

[catters05]

Cut out on me a lot, hope they resolve. Only streaming that has issues.

 

[gavaniacono]

Make sure you all email their customer support

Ive emailed them alright!

 

[kranky al]

Its almost like fox know people will vpn it and watch in oz instead of using fox and have crippled it.

Whoda thought

 

[Cudi_420]

100% routing issues.

Is anyone surprised though?