Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service broadcast its first-ever NBA playoff game on Tuesday night, a play-in contest between the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets. But what should’ve been a celebratory night for the streamer quickly turned into a nightmare during the last minute of overtime.
Across the country, bewildered NBA fans watched as their Prime Video streams turned to black with 48.1 seconds left in the do-or-die game before being met with a slate reading “Technical Difficulties.” Disaster had officially struck.
By the time the broadcast returned over a minute later, viewers had missed a LaMelo Ball layup that pushed the Hornets’ lead to five points.
Prime Video has now put out a statement addressing the ill-timed outage.
“Tonight’s broadcast of the Miami Heat at Charlotte Hornets experienced a temporary disruption due to a hardware failure in our production truck. Our teams restored the feed as quickly as possible to ensure fans could watch the conclusion of the game. We are conducting a thorough internal review to determine the cause of the outage,” the statement read.
The flub comes at a time when fans and politicians alike have taken aim at the ills of sports on streaming. Those criticisms are generally aimed at the increased fragmentation and associated costs related to needing myriad streaming services to watch games. However, when a game airing on a streamer experiences technical difficulties like Prime Video’s broadcast last night, it’s easy to point the finger at streaming, even if this exact issue could’ve happened on any platform.
It should be noted, Prime Video has streamed numerous high-profile NFL games for years without issue.
Regardless, having such a high-profile mistake happen in the first playoff game to air exclusively on the platform does not inspire confidence among viewers. Prime Video will have to ace the rest of its NBA playoff run, or else criticism will continue to mount.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.