Football fans left frustrated when their cable TV service failed 10 minutes before the World Cup kicked off have now been offered the chance of compensation.

Fans in three streets in Didcot were unable to tune in to Brazil’s 3-1 win over Croatia, the competition’s opening game, because of a fault with Virgin Media TV, occurring at about 8.50pm on Thursday.

Viewers with the service were unable to watch the World Cup opening ceremony or the first match of the tournament as a result.

Picture researcher Neil Braggins, 48, who lives in Park Close, said: “It was very frustrating. Virgin said at the time it was an area fault.”

Virgin Media spokesman Emma Hutchinson said: “A small number of Virgin Media homes in the Didcot area were affected by a localised fault, which happened just before the Brazil versus Croatia match kicked off.

“Our engineers began work immediately and we started to bring people back online the next morning.

“We apologise to anyone who missed the game.”

She added that the company would be happy to discuss compensation on a case-by-case basis.