(Football news) The FIFA World Cup kicked off yesterday with a clash between Qatar and Ecuador. The hosts were totally outclassed as the South American side won 2-0. Morgan Freeman and Jungkook from BTS performed at the opening ceremony but viewers in India were left frustrated. The World Cup was exclusively telecasted on the newly launched Sports18 channel and was streamed live on Jio Cinema for free, both of which are owned by Reliance's Viacom18. Both the modes had severe problems as the TV channel didn't have commentary for a long time while the streaming platform was buffering every 3 seconds or even worse as for some it wasn't working at all.

Fans were left frustrated as many criticized the broadcast on Twitter and blamed the company for ruining their experience. Viacom18 had bragged the rights to the FIFA World Cup when they didn't have a live streaming app or a sports channel. Later they launched live streaming on the Voot app as they also got the rights to Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga. The streaming quality was pretty good and there were no complaints. Later, Reliance officially announced that the World Cup will only be telecasted on the newly launched Sports18 channel and Jio Cinema for free without subscription. The announcement was met with outrage as people claimed to have subscribed to Voot for 1 year which was the only available plan just to watch the World Cup.

Voot support on twitter claimed that they never announced that they would telecast the FIFA World Cup. However the claim was refuted when people shared screenshots of Voot having done promos of the mega event on their app and they also had a separate page for it. Later on in the match a method to stop the buffering was discovered. 

Here's how to watch the World Cup without buffering:

Start the Jio Cinema app and select the match stream

Click on the multicam option

Select the 2nd 'Extended Stadium Feed' option

The above method is something that worked for many people in yesterday's match but today things could be different. Viacom18 and Jio Cinema have since issued a formal apology. Realistically the issue will have to be resolved before today's match between England and Iran. In the most controversial World Cup of all the issues don't seem to end but fans in India will be hoping that the streaming issue is solved so that they can enjoy the match in peace.

Also read: Is all the criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo's outrageous interview fair?