Optus Sports fails its first World Cup test

World Cup broadcasters Optus Sport have been savaged by Australian viewers on the second night of the tournament.

Feed disruptions plagued the Telco's coverage of its first exclusive match - Uruguay against Egypt - on Friday night.

Irate viewers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations, coining the #FloptusSport hashtag.

"This coverage makes me angrier than stepping on LEGO barefoot," user Oscar Angeloni wrote.

"Resolve the playback error mate ... you can tweet later," Vignesh Sathyam responded to one of the company's Tweets, capturing popular sentiment to Optus' failings.

"The World Cup is a special time that unites all Australians in hating @OptusSport coverage. #OptusSport #Fail," Gonzalo N Villanueva tweeted. Even Matildas star Sam Kerr shared her frustration.

An Optus spokesperson said the crashes were due to "an extremely high number of viewers logging into our platforms just before kick-off causing some systems to overload."

"While most customers on most platforms were unaffected, we apologise unreservedly to those customers who were, and are continuing to investigate the cause of these systems issues," an Optus statement read.

The Australian broadcasting rights to the tournament are being shared by Optus Sport and free-to-air network SBS.

The long-term home of Australian soccer has the rights to one match a night and every match from the quarter-final stage onwards, as well as each Socceroos contest.

Optus is carrying the rest, providing the matches as a package for $15, or as part of mobile subscription packages.