ITV viewers baffled as broadcast cuts out during Saudi Arabia national anthem

ITV viewers watching World Cup coverage of the Argentina and Saudi Arabia Group C match were pretty confused when the broadcast cut out when the Saudi Arabia national anthem was being played.

Footy fans tuned in to see Lionel Messi's first appearance in the tournament as the 35-year-old previously suggested that Qatar 2022 would be his last World Cup.

Before kick-off, the countries sing their national anthems with Argentina going first but coverage at the Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar briefly stopped when it was Saudi Arabia's turn to sing theirs.

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Instead of the song, viewers heard some static sounds as a colourful error message appeared momentarily on the screen while the coverage dropped on two occasions.

However, things were soon up and running again as ITV Sam Matterface gave an apology for the technical issues.

"Welcome back here to the Lusail Stadium, north of Doha. Firstly, we'd like to apologise for the brief loss of pictures during the Saudi national anthem," he said.

Presenter Laura Woods later provided further details about the problem and noted it wasn't just ITV that experienced this drop in coverage.

"You may have noticed a bit break up during the Saudi Arabia national anthem. It was a world feed issue, experienced by all broadcasters around the world that were taking that feed," she said.

Viewers took to social media to see whether everyone else was experiencing the same problem.

One person asked: "This ITV coverage signal wise has been AWFUL so far: I’m guessing everyone’s getting the same issue?"

"ITV’s coverage already cutting out," another person said.

Meanwhile, the BBC apologised when issues occurred with its iPlayer feed during England's opening World Cup match against Iran on Monday.

"Just a quick pointer, apologies if you've had any BBC iPlayer issues during that first half. We're working to fix them," BBC pundit Gary Lineker said.

The BBC also said in a statement: "We're aware of an issue affecting some users on BBC iPlayer. We're trying to fix this as soon as possible."

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