Amazon wins exclusive US Open rights for the UK - then its stream crashes

What is going on? Diego Schwartzman of Argentina reacts during his Men's Singles quarterfinal match against Rafael Nadal of Spain on day ten of the 2019 US Open. Photo / Getty

For the second year in a row Amazon's Prime Video streaming service has been the only way for people in the UK to watch the US Open.

The while the tech giant successfully outbid traditional broadcasters, with a US$40 million, five-year deal, its performance has fallen short.

On Wednesday evening, during coverage of the quarter-finals, subscribers reported widespread connectivity problems leaving viewers without access to live coverage of the matches.

It's the second year of problems since the event went streaming-only.

Last year, Amazon was inundated with complaints and stopped British tennis fans from posting reviews, according to a Guardian report. Before the blackout, 90 per cent of 650 reviews gave the service one or two stars out of five.

Affected users last night found the service had failed across multiple devices, according to numerous posts across social media networks. Those that could connect reported variable picture quality.

Monitoring websites including Downdetector reported a huge spike in outage reports, peaking between 8pm and 9pm UK time, confirming the extent of the issues.

In a short statement, Amazon customer support said: "We're currently experiencing issues with our US Open coverage and apologize for the inconvenience. Rest assured, Amazon Prime Video is working to have this resolved soon."

By late evening, the first users were reporting regaining access, while others were being told to reboot their devices first to restore access.

The incident joins a roster of streaming stuff-ups that includes Optus' failure during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which saw refunds issued and coverage transferred to the free-to-air SBS.

However, Spark has previously pointed out that there are also many cases of successful streaming, with major events, including IPL games in India, routinely being streamed to millions.