Fans watch a men’s singles first round match between Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus on Day Two of the 2018 U.S. Open. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Amazon’s online coverage of the U.S. Open in the U.K. and Ireland has received overwhelmingly negative reviews on Amazon.co.uk. From 890 users, 82 percent ranked the service as 1-star, giving it an overall rating of 1.5 out of 5.
“Amazon, with all these reviews from us tennis fans, have you realized what you have done?” wrote David on the product’s review page. “I dont need to repeat what all the other reviewers have said already, everything is wrong about this US open coverage. look guys, yes, you made a lot of money, yes you want to take over the world, but please leave tennis alone.”
Earlier this year, Amazon signed a five-year deal with the USTA for broadcast rights to the tournament covering the U.K. and Ireland. That agreement has been estimated to be worth around $40 million. Amazon planned to allow Prime subscribers free access to the streaming coverage.
The company reportedly blocked comments following the deluge of negative reviews, according to SportsPro Media. An Amazon spokesperson explained that there was an IT glitch with the firm’s website. Users attempting to rate the service were met with the message: “This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews. There can be a number of reasons for this, including unusual reviewing activity.”
SportTechie Takeaway
The streaming market has continued to grow this year. Facebook has grabbed a host of soccer rights, including those to stream the UEFA Champions League in South America, while Twitter recently added shows covering the Overwatch League and plans to show several high-profile high school football games. But several companies have struggled to provide a good streaming service to consumers. Optus relinquished its streaming rights to the World Cup in Australia in June after multiple problems and DAZN suffered glitches with its Serie A stream in Italy earlier this month. Now Amazon’s U.S. Open service has joined that list.
