People Are Really Mad About Channel Seven’s Olympics App
"What kind of sick joke is this app?"
In refreshing news, a commercial TV network is being slammed for something other than a morning show racism scandal. Channel Seven is being roasted by fans of the Olympics over its mobile streaming app that promises users 36 channels of live streaming, video highlights, medal tallies, athlete profiles and photo galleries. The app, which charges $19.95 to access “premium” features, has received thousands of negative reviews with users complaining about a range of technical issues.
The reviews are… not good
Most of the reviews focus on the apps poor streaming quality, abundant ads and frequent crashes. “Come on lads, with all that $$ and tech you have don’t shame us, we are much greater than this. Ad after ad, frequent crashing, can’t choose what the watch and when… up your ante, mates” said user LX_Melb, appealing to Channel Seven’s sense of patriotism.
“I’m glad to see so much effort has been put into making sure the advertising is working. That is obviously the ‘content’ that we are meant to be consuming, don’t worry about the first rounds of the women’s soccer, just throw an error message about the stream or something and crash!” said another user.
“This app is a disgrace,” wrote Dave Fraumano. “A premium account to watch table tennis highlights? Give us a break.”
Channel 7’s coverage of the Olympics is woeful. Never seen an app crash so much! Miss the @BBC. Looks as though a VPN is needed.
— Sam Hancock (@own_grown) August 8, 2016
Can’t believe #sunriseon7 are still flogging the channel 7 Olympics app, it doesn’t bloody work! I wasted $20 getting premium service. Crap.
— Kay Everitt (@KaysEveritt) August 7, 2016
So I pay $20 for the privilege to watch the Boomers replay on my phone and the Channel 7 app is carrying the American commentary? A joke — Nick Welch (@NickWelch51) August 7, 2016
Not all the reviews are negative. Eshay_Lad wrote, “What’s with the all the negativity – I can watch the Olympics in bed with some avocado toast. I watched a ping pong match that didn’t have any commentary just because I could. Ping, pong, ping, pong.”
One of challenges the Olympics, and broadcast partners like Channel Seven, face is maintaining viewers in an era of vastly changed media consumption habits. With plenty of people rejecting old school TV broadcasting in favour of streaming services like Netflix, events like the Olympics are under pressure to offer viewers a chance to watch at a time and place to suits them. The Channel 7 Olympics app was supposed to be the service that allowed people to get their Olympics content whenever and wherever they wanted, but it seems to have missed the mark.
The app has already been updated five times since it was released just a week ago, so on that schedule it should probably be fixed and watchable in time for the Winter Olympics.