If you happened to be watching West Ham United’s penalty shootout win against Brentford on Monday night via the Discovery+ app, then you would have been hit with a technical fault before the second half.
The stream cut out after the first half and did not appear again until the beginning of extra time, leaving plenty of users frustrated.
While those watching via TNT Sports’ main channel were unaffected, the same cannot be said for those who tuned in via the streaming app.
It has led to TNT Sports, which operates in the United Kingdom as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Discovery, opening an investigation into why the technical fault happened. The Champions League and Europa League are due to be broadcast on TNT tonight and in the coming days.
How has TNT reacted to the outage?
TNT is carrying out an investigation and the broadcaster is working out what exactly went wrong that led to the outage, as is often the case if there is any kind of technical error, let alone viewers being left unable to watch the second half of a crucial FA Cup fixture.
If anything goes mildly wrong, then there is always a debrief and a full report delivered, and this, although it will likely be treated as something that went majorly wrong, will be given the same level of attention.
What has TNT said?
Although there has been no formal statement from the broadcaster, it did respond to the discontent online on Monday night and apologised to those who were impacted by the outage. “We’re aware that some customers experienced difficulty streaming the match this evening on discovery+,” a social media post from its official account read.
“This has now been resolved, customers should be able to close the app, restart and then watch live. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”
Is the broadcaster confident it won’t happen again?
It is impossible to say with absolute confidence that it won’t happen again, but there is no reason to believe it is going to impact its Champions League coverage this evening.
TNT is going to be broadcasting the Champions League fixtures between Atletico Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur, Atalanta against Bayern Munich, and Liverpool’s trip to Galatasaray.
Tottenham’s game with Atletico Madrid is on TNT Sports tonight (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
Its European slate of fixtures on Wednesday night includes Arsenal’s match away to Bayer Leverkusen, Paris Saint-Germain versus Chelsea, and Bodo/Glimt’s home tie against Sporting CP.
TNT Sports will also be broadcasting West Ham United’s Premier League fixture against Manchester City on Saturday evening.
It is worth noting that TNT Sports shows around 700 live matches a season and Monday night’s technical issue was an anomaly when set against the sheer number of games they stream live.
What does TNT Sports have the rights to broadcast?
TNT Sports has been a long-established partner of the Premier League and broadcasts 52 live matches a season, with that deal not expiring until 2028-29.
They also have the rights to more than 185 live Champions League fixtures, including the final, as well as every Europa League and Conference League ties, although they will be losing those rights from 2027 onwards after being outbid by Paramount+ to show the Champions League.
On top of Premier League and European football, TNT has a deal with the Football Association to show every game from the FA Cup third round outside of the 3pm kick-off slot, with the final being shown on a free-to-air basis.
Their FA Cup rights package kicked in at the beginning of this season and was signed as a four-year deal.