Prime Video’s NBA crunch-time blackout sparks star-powered backlash
During Amazon Prime Video’s coverage of an NBA play-in game between the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, the live stream briefly cut out in the final seconds of overtime, causing viewers to miss a key LaMelo Ball basket. The feed returned about a minute later, but the outage prompted public complaints from high-profile viewers including LeBron James and other fans criticizing the reliability of Prime Video for live playoff games.
Key Takeaways
- Prime Video’s live feed dropped with under 30 seconds left in OT, missing a pivotal play.
- The outage lasted roughly a minute, but occurred at the worst possible “clutch” moment.
- High-profile accounts (including LeBron James and CJ McCollum) amplified complaints in real time on X.
- Viewer criticism focused on reliability and AV stability—core trust metrics for live sports streaming.
- The incident reignites scrutiny around platform resilience as leagues expand digital distribution.
Why It Matters
Live sports is the ultimate “one-shot” workload: there’s no rewind for the moment everyone is watching together. A one-minute failure in overtime can erase months of product marketing in a single screenshot of “Technical Difficulties,” especially when stars like LeBron turn into real-time QA on social. For Amazon—and every streamer chasing premium rights—this is a reminder that perceived reliability, not just bitrate or features, drives subscriber trust and league confidence. Expect renewed focus on redundancy, failover paths, monitoring, and tighter operational SLAs as streaming becomes the primary TV for marquee events.
Read full article at msn.com
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