Outrage in Australia over the failure of Fifa World Cup live streaming at the weekend signals potential concerns for New Zealand rugby fans ahead of Spark's plans to stream matches in next year's Rugby World Cup.

Australian telco Optus has been under fire from outraged fans after games were constantly disrupted by frozen screens, buffering, service interruptions and error messages.

Earlier this year TVNZ and Spark won the rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan that will see Kiwis watch games without paying.

Fans will be able to stream matches and related content live or on-demand over their home broadband or mobile connections.

TVNZ and Spark will be hoping their streams won't confront the same issues as Optus have over the weekend.

In a statement, an Optus spokesman said that "an extremely high number of viewers logging into our platforms just before kick-off causing some systems to overload".

"Some Optus Sport customers experienced a disruption to their 2018 FIFA World Cup viewing experience on Friday night," the statement read.

"While most customers on most platforms were unaffected, we apologise unreservedly to those customers who were, and are continuing to investigate the cause of these systems issues."

Optus received a tirade of abuse online, with former Socceroo Robbie Slater - a current Fox Sports presenter - joining in on the action.

The biggest show on earth #WorldCup18 and it’s not on free to air ! Shame

— Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) June 15, 2018

I hear the streaming is going well ! Absolute disgrace ! Long month ahead ! If you going to have it deliver it !

— Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) June 15, 2018

Optus Sport currently doing unfathomable damage to the sport of football in Australia.

— Rudi (@RudiEdsall) June 15, 2018

So my Optus stream of the Egypt Uruguay game is absolutely cooked.

— Conor Ryan (@conorVryan) June 15, 2018

TVNZ will screen seven Rugby World Cup matches live – including the tournament's opening match and the final – the same number offered free-to-air in 2015.

A yet-to-be-confirmed number of delayed matches will also screen. There will be no ads during live game time, TVNZ said.

Rugby fans will be able to stream matches and related content live, or on-demand, over their home broadband or mobile connection.

The service will offer both free and paid content to everyone, not just Spark customers.

Spark has already released a statement saying it's mindful "some people may still not have adequate coverage to stream the matches at home" and that the company is looking at a range of options to ensure the content reaches a broad audience.

Spark has still not announced what those measures might involve, but the pressure will be on to ensure it delivers effective options for what will be the New Zealand's first predominantly digital Rugby World Cup.