Evidence Makgopa of Bafana Bafana in Mexico is Gilberto Mora and Thalente Mbatha will be on the ball. (Photo: Yuri Cortez/AFP).
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has apologized for the disruption SABC+ users experienced during the Soccer World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico on Thursday night.
According to Mmoni Ngubane, head of communications of the SABC, the problem was caused by a mandatory system update that forms part of standard procedures for major international sports broadcasts, as well as an unusually high volume of users who tried to access the platform at the same time shortly before kick-off.
“The situation began to put pressure on the system shortly before kick-off and quickly escalated as demand increased.”
She says certain users had to log in to the platform again after the update was applied, which caused additional pressure on the system at a time when traffic was already at its highest level.
“The demand at that time was exceptionally high and put the capacity of the system under serious pressure.
“However, our technical teams intervened immediately to restore stability and worked throughout the evening to get the service functional again.”
The platform gradually began to recover after that and was largely stable again by about ten minutes before half-time.
However, Ngubane admitted that the “timing of the update notification was not ideal” and caused frustration among users who were already trying to stream the match.
The SABC described the usage levels during the match as “unprecedented”, with the platform breaking records in concurrent users and login attempts.
“Millions of login attempts were registered within a very short period of time, which further hampered the system’s ability to process access quickly.”
The SABC says technical improvements are being identified and implemented to prevent future outages during high demand, particularly during major live sporting events.
“We are already working on capacity and infrastructure improvements to better handle future pressure, and thank viewers for their patience and continued support during the outage,” said Ngubane.