World Cup final: More Sky Go trouble

During the Black Caps' semi-final, Sky TV's Sky Go fell over faster than Cameron Slater.

And it seems to have happened again today, despite it not being a work day, which should have helped. Most will be in reach of the Sky Sport coverage or free-to-air broadcast on Prime rather than trying to sneak a look at Sky Go on their office PC or tablet.

"Sky Go couldn’t even get to the end of the national anthem without crapping out. Guess that’s the extent of my viewing," Sam McEwan tweeted.

"It's not working at all," weighed in Camille Guzzwell as NBR asked Sky Go users how it was going.

"Total fail. And could not remote record because the app failed. Taxi home from work it is then," tweeted Chris Murray.

Shortly after Mr Murray's tweet, McCullum was out third ball for a duck.

"Actually. I think I will stay at work," the hapless Sky Go user responded.

Another couple of Sky Go viewers said the service was working fine.

Earlier, the broadcaster said it had tweaked its video streaming service for smart devices — but is also being careful not to promise a perfect performance.

"We've made changes and worked hard to try and make sure everything works well today for the Black Caps' final," comms manager Kirsty Way told NBR this morning.

"We are acutely aware the nation is watching and we are striving to deliver the match seamlessly on all screens."

Ms Way wouldn't detail the change, but does say Tuesday's problems weren't related to capacity issues (that is, skimping on servers or bandwidth at Sky's end).

"I'm in Christchurch and have been having trouble with other streaming apps which just highlights your own broadband will always play a role too," she said.

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Cricket World Cup semi-final: Sky Go falls over, again

March 24: There were howls of outrage as Sky TV's video streaming service Sky Go fell over, again, during this afternoon's Cricket World Cup semi-final between NZ and South Africa — sparking social media outrage from people trying to follow the big game on a PC at work, or a smart device on the move.

"Yes it was down for new viewers coming on for about an hour," Sky spokeswoman Kirsty Way told NBR mid afternoon. "Those already viewing were not affected [a theory disputed by a couple of NBR readers; see comments below]. It's now resolved."

Ms Way ways the issue was "not capacity related."

Samsung NZ senior manager Verdon Kelliher was among many who took to social media to complain. Mr Kelliher ultimately pointed his followers to an alternative source of online video coverage of the game — which many would describe as a pirate site service of dubious provenance.

Media commentator Russell Brown tweeted, What an abysmal failure by @SKYNZ that subscribers resort to pirate streams because Sky Go isn't properly provisioned for a major match."

Former TV host James Cardno offered, "Funny/sad thing with Sky Go issues - watching it on normal satellite just fine. Hurting premium subscribers while the serfs watch fine = bad."

A number of tweets said Sky Go was also unreliable during big Super Rugby games.

The social media slam must be a disappointment for Sky, which 18 months ago switched content delivery network (CDN) providers from Kordia to Akamai in a bid to boost reliability (foulups for the service under Kordia included a blackout during the men,s 100m Olympic final).

And it's not a good look as the streaming video revolution takes off. More so on the day that Netflix NZ launches.

It won't help Sky's new Fanpass online service for Super Rugby, NRL and F1, either — although it must be said NBR has found Fanpass a solid performer (it runs on different platform from Sky Go; in fact the same NuLion technology used by Lightbox Sport for PremierLeaguePass.com). 

Streaming media is not easy. As I'm sure someone will point out in Comments if I don't fess up to it here, NBR Radio has had a couple of issues. Subscribers are understanding, but they'll only cut you slack for so long. Sky Go and its predecessor iSky have been around for a couple of years now. Time to whip them into shape for big games. Some will start to be suspicious that Sky is under-investing in new media as it protects its traditional business.

Follow @ChrisKeall