Jr Hockey World Cup: No live streaming of India match as FIH app crashes (Ld)

November 25,2021

The International Hockey Federation's (FIH) preparation for the live streaming of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men's Junior World Cup proved insufficient as their mobile application (app) and the website crashed just ahead of the India versus France match due to heavy traffic.

The FIH said it has asked its partner to ensure that such problems won't be faced again.

With Star Sports, the official rights holder for all FIH events in India, taking up the broadcast of the event only from December 1, with the start of the knockouts, FIH had decided to unlock the geographical blockers for India so that everyone can watch the live streaming of matches on its mobile app, Watch.Hockey and its website.

It seems FIH and its partners Nagra, a Kudelski Group company and the world's leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen video solutions, were not ready for the huge traffic as lakhs of Indian fans tried to log into the app and website to get live information of the match.

The site crashed and none could watch the match live, nor get live updates.

"On behalf of the global hockey community, FIH is very disappointed with the issues encountered on Watch.Hockey during today's live streaming of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men's Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021 match between India and France. FIH has immediately contacted its partner Nagra to get a full explanation of the issue and ensure that such problems won't be faced again," the FIH said in a statement to IANS.

The problems had started from the morning itself as a lot of people could log into the app but failed to get the live video. Though things were resolved soon and people could watch the Belgium versus South Africa and the other matches of the day, things went haywire in the evening when people started logging in in large numbers ahead of India's match against France.

The app and website went kaput with viewers getting to see only a blank screen or old content on the app and site.

FIH hoped that such problems would not be encountered in subsequent matches. "As the event progresses, we look forward to welcoming many more new hockey fans on Watch.Hockey," it said.