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Ideally, during the final minutes of a do-or-die playoff game, fans wouldn’t miss any of the game due to technical difficulties.
Unfortunately, fans missed part of the final minute of the Charlotte Hornets’ 127-126 overtime victory over the Miami Heat in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament on Tuesday night because Amazon Prime Video’s stream cut out.
The feed cut out as the game was resuming after a timeout, with the Hornets leading the Heat 125-120 with 48.1 seconds left in overtime. Amazon Prime Video’s blackout lasted almost two minutes, with fans missing 22.1 seconds of game time and a Hornets possession.
The blackout occurred as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr recently said he was concerned that the rising prices of streaming games are maddening for sports fans. Carr’s comments come as the NFL, NBA, MLB and other major sports leagues are shifting some of their games from traditional broadcasts to streaming services.
The blackout happened because of an issue in the production truck, a spokesperson for Amazon Prime Video told ESPN.
“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 spokesperson said.
BROADCASTER TIM BRANDO SUGGESTS SPORTS FANS GET CONFUSED WHERE TO WATCH GAMES AS STREAMING TAKES OVER
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James was one of many fans who took to social media to voice his displeasure with the service cutting out.
“Tell me the game didn’t just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH,” James posted to X.
The NBA signed an 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal with Amazon Prime Video that began this season, and the streaming service has exclusive rights to all six of this year’s play-in tournament games.
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The matchup between the Heat (10th seed) and Hornets (ninth seed) was win-or-go-home. With the win, the Hornets will play the loser of the No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers and the No. 8 Orlando Magic on Friday.
If they beat the loser of that matchup, they will make the NBA Playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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