DAZN says NFL games streaming woes fixed

TELECOM

TORONTO• Online streaming service DAZN says Canadian football fans should expect improved viewing experiences this weekend after it fixed technical snarls that led to incomplete reception during the NFL season-opening games.

DAZN, pronounced “da zone,” is the exclusive platform where Canadian sports fans can watch every single National Football League game after its billionaire backer Len Blavatnik purchased the rights from the NFL.

But its debut last weekend as a replacement for cable TV had some fans longing for their old remote controls. Lag times, extended buffering, mysterious error messages and mismatched sound led to a flood of customer service requests and an apology from the NFL, which said it is monitoring the service closely.

In a statement, DAZN said there were “no excuses” for the rocky start. It blamed human error for some of the bigger audio problems and said it put in a series of checks to prevent a repeat. It is making technical fixes to improve picture quality for viewers with slower connections, a process that will lead to incremental improvements over the next couple of weeks, and working with manufacturers to optimize quality on different devices.

DAZN managing director Alex Rice said in an interview Friday that DAZN will “never say our problems are completely gone away” given the fact that playback quality depends on individual internet connections and devices.

But he said the measures taken to improve quality, particularly for subscribers with lower- speed connections, show the service is taking steps to win back consumer confidence.

“We recognize last weekend wasn’t good enough,” Rice said. “We’re listening and we’re putting in the measures to make sure fans feel they’re being treated responsibly.”

That said, Rice acknowledged the experience won’t feel exactly like cable, where fans could switch between channels without lag time. Time lags of up to 30 seconds are normal for streaming services.

While many NFL games are still available via traditional TV packages, DAZN holds the rights to the rest, the games diehard fans and fantasy football players deem essential watching.

DAZN is the first service in Canada where streaming is the only option to watch live sports on a screen.

Calgary resident Ian Gillies said he’ll give DAZN another chance, but will cancel if reliability doesn’t improve due to the “miserable” game-watching experience.