Cricket fans angry as Sky Go's on-demand service crashes

Brendon McCullum at Eden Park as the Black Caps take on South Africa. Photo/Getty

Sky TV's on-demand service is struggling under the strain of the cricket - and fans say they're turning to illegal streams so they can watch it.

Sky admitted it was "aware of issues" with its service and was "urgently looking into it" as the Black Caps take on South Africa in today's semi-final game at Eden Park.

Users reported glitches began to appear on the service from the moment the teams appeared on the pitch.

Sorry, we're aware of issues with streaming on our SKY GO service – we're urgently looking into it and will update as soon as we can.

— Sky (@SKYNZ) March 24, 2015

At 3.55pm, Sky tweeted the service was back up and running.

UPDATE: SKY GO has been restored and livestreams are working. Let us know if you’re having further issues. Go the @BLACKCAPS!

— Sky (@SKYNZ) March 24, 2015

But that wasn't good enough for fans who took to Twitter to complain about the service's streaming issues, with buffering issues and quality the main problem.

Others said it had crashed completely.

Some even shared web addresses of illegal streaming services so they could get their cricket fix.

Read a selection of tweets below:

@SKYNZ this error will be famous today. pic.twitter.com/BSuPNIDxTE

— Matt Poutoa (@MattPoutoa) March 24, 2015

@SKYNZ come on guys! How many more wickets do we have to miss before its fixed. Good luck!

— Zain Ansari © (@zansari91) March 24, 2015

Fair to say that Sky is already groaning under the weight of all the Sky Go viewers wanting cricket coverage at work. No picture for me.

— Dan Slevin (@danslevin) March 24, 2015

Funny/sad thing with Sky Go issues - watching it on normal satellite just fine. Hurting premium subscribers while the serfs watch fine = bad

— James Cardno (@jamescardno) March 24, 2015

@Herbertimo I'm listening to the alternative cricket commentary on iHeart radio because #SkyGo is broken.

— •Blacklight• (@blacklightpix) March 24, 2015

sky go is just a slow, crawling piece of poo right now #blackcaps

— Keith Patton (@kpatton) March 24, 2015

Great, Sky Go not working. wonderful service from the company that charges me over $100 a month.

— David Long (@davidlongffx) March 24, 2015

What an abysmal failure by @SKYNZ that subscribers resort to pirate streams because Sky Go isn't properly provisioned for a major match.

— Russell Brown (@publicaddress) March 24, 2015

- nzherald.co.nz