NBA fans sat on the edges of their seats as last night’s game between the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets went into overtime. That excitement quickly shifted to confusion, frustration, and outrage when Amazon Prime Video, the only place where the game was available to watch, subsequently cut out for almost two minutes. As reported by ESPN, Prime Video started showing a message that read “technical difficulties” seconds after cutting off the game’s commentator in the middle of a sentence. Viewers missed a Hornets possession that included a score by LaMelo Ball. By the time the stream came back online, 22.1 seconds of playing time had passed, per ESPN, and viewers were dismayed. “Tell me the game didn’t just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH,” LeBron James, a Los Angeles Lakers player who previously won two championships with the Heat, said, adding a face-planting emoji, on X. Prime Video’s fumble is made worse by the fact that the streaming service had exclusive rights to air the game. The only other way to experience the game was in person or by listening to select radio stations. An Amazon spokesperson told ESPN that the stream went out because of “a hardware failure in our production truck,” adding: “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.” NBA’s less famous fans were also disturbed by Prime Video’s failure, with some even calling for a lawsuit.
NBA fans cry foul as Prime Video cuts out during overtime, fails to sync audio