Viewers slam Amazon's U.S. Open coverage in live tennis stumble

Viewers in the U.K. slammed Amazon.com Inc.'s coverage of the US Open Tennis Championships, a hiccup for the company's first major foray into live sports broadcasting. More than 80 percent of customers gave the service a 1-star review, based on 646 reviews, complaining about the lack of a replay option, poor picture quality, the inability to record matches and limited choice of courts to watch. The negative reaction is a setback for Amazon, which is pushing into live sport as another way to lure subscribers to its Prime membership service, which includes video streaming and fast online grocery shopping. It follows similar issues for digital upstarts Eleven Sports and DAZN, which have bought streaming rights to live sports, but suffered technical problems. "It's symptomatic of the teething problems we see with the new sports streaming services," said Richard Broughton, research director at Ampere Analysis in London. "It's a whole new world for these players." Amazon, which has the exclusive live rights to the US Open in the U.K. and Ireland for the next five years, didn't immediately comment. Attracting more viewers to its streaming service is important for the company, which trails Netflix Inc. in popularity. Seattle-based Amazon in June bought a package of live broadcasting rights for English Premier League soccer starting in 2019. —Bloomberg News

Viewers slam Amazon's U.S. Open coverage in live tennis stumble

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