There have been plenty of notable sports outages over the years, from those with virtual multichannel video programming distributors like YouTube TV and Hulu+Live TV to those with actual local broadcast affiliates like the ransomware attack Sinclair-owned stations have been dealing with to those with OTT streaming services like ESPN+. The latest notable issue is in that latter camp, and it’s from ViacomCBS streaming service Paramount+, with that outage coming during Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League matches.
ViacomCBS won the U.S. rights to that competition in November 2019, and put most of it on Paramount+ (then called CBS All-Access). And that’s mostly seemed to have gone okay (aside from the complaints about many matches only being shown on streaming services, but that likely would have happened with the streaming arm of whatever company won the rights). On Tuesday, though, there were significant Paramount+ issues for many viewers trying to watch individual UEFA Champiosn League matches, with those outages lasting more than 30 minutes for some. The screenshot at top is from this writer’s own Paramount+ service, on an attempt to watch Athletico Madrid-Liverpool. Here’s the ominously-named error fellow AA writer Ken Fang got trying to load the Paramount+ app on his iPad:
Here are some of the many other errors people tweeted about:
Hey @paramountplus this is the third time in an hour my stream has frozen. I only subscribed for champions league. Any reason why the feed keeps freezing? pic.twitter.com/zQ5hKPwkno
— Shawn ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va Waite (@Shawn172510) October 19, 2021
Help @paramountplus – I’m trying to watch @acmilan in @ChampionsLeague
pic.twitter.com/XHqMOHiGKC — Rick Olivieri (@rickolivieri) October 19, 2021
Worst streaming service of all time. Forfeit the contract. Terrible streaming quality and commentaries for CONCACAF qualifiers, now you can’t even broadcast Champions league games…. You should be embarrassed @paramountplus @CBSSportsGolazo
— Todd (@WL_Hung_) October 19, 2021
Paramount+ (plus) continuously has issues with Champions League/Europa League coverage. One day, the connection is bad and lags severely or when crucial moments in game happen. Today, the streams across the board just aren't working. Really infuriating to have to deal with this
— Dominic Campbell (@DOMISMONEY) October 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/jamtarts15/status/1450555910515052548
https://twitter.com/BMccaffray13/status/1450555715119161349
https://twitter.com/RogerSmith_1947/status/1450555727047581697
I want a refund. The only reason I have this shitty service is for Champions League soccer. Get it together you $&@$& #ParamountPlus
— Nish (@nisanth921) October 19, 2021
This was not a universal error; AA was able to confirm that some people were able to access Champions League matches on Paramount+ during this period. And the main whiparound Golazo Show came back sooner than individual matches for some, and some individual matches came back for some before others. But this was a notable outage, and one that lasted more than 30 minutes for a significant number of people.