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14th Jun 2018

The Start Of The World Cup Has Highlighted RTÉ’s Biggest Problem Already

Darragh Berry

The biggest sporting competition in the world has kicked-off on Thursday afternoon. Yeah, we said it, the biggest and best. What you gonna do about it?

The World Cup is underway as hosts Russia take on Saudi Arabia in the Group A opener. Even though Ireland is not in – sigh – we’re still going to be trying our best to watch every second of the competition whenever we can.

If you’re not in work, you probably can rely on the good old television or you might even treat yourself and head down to the pub.

But, what if you don’t have a television handy, your local is a bit of a trek by foot or even worse, you’re stuck in work.

You’re probably going to rely on the RTÉ Player. We logged on during the first half of the Russia game (if the boss is reading this, we’re only joking, ha) and streamed the game on the player for a bit. It was all going fine, for about a minute and then the streaming got bad, very bad. To the point where you couldn’t make out which team was which, or if the ball was even in play.

And if you did get your wits about you, the stream would just freeze entirely.

We weren’t on our own either, it seemed like most people who tried to watch the game on the player experienced the same viewing…

If the Player doesn’t pull itself together for when the football fans need it the most, it seems like they are going to rely on ITV and the like or find other ways of watching it.

It could be the downfall of the national broadcaster this World Cup.

READ NEXT: Here’s The Entire RTÉ Schedule For The 2018 World Cup

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