Audio glitch causes fan frustration

There was a mishap with the audio during the All Blacks' match against Tonga. Photo / Getty Images

A technical fault caused frustration to Kiwi rugby fans watching Sky TV during this morning's All Blacks' Rugby World Cup win against Tonga.

Chief Executive of Sky TV, John Fellet, was enjoying a visit from his new granddaughter so missed the glitch, but confirmed there was about 10 mintutes during coverage of the game in Newcastle, England, where the audio was out of sync with the video playback.

"The audio comes back on a different track from the video so one may go by satellite and another by under sea cable. Every time it bounces back it adds six seconds or so on to the delay."

He said the problem was fixed quickly by delaying the video to match the audio.

"It's not the easiest thing to sync," said Fellet.

"We may do a thousand sporting events overseas and there's about 1 per cent chance of this happening," he said.

Despite a number of fans taking to Twitter to complain, Fellet said the company did not get a high level of calls about the issue.

He did not see the need to offer refunds for the frustration.

"It was just 10 minutes over the course of 30 days," he said.

Sky spokesperson Kirsty Way said the problem is unlikely to trouble viewers again.

"With all the sport we bring in from overseas, something like this is pretty rare. We had a bad cable and we managed to rectify it by getting a new link," she said. "It was bad luck on the day."