Bring back Prime - Terrible US Open Coverage

[Ant11]

I thought the whole point of streaming was that you could watch what you wanted when you wanted. Prime costs so much less and was far superior for tennis, plus you get films, TV and parcel delivery for 75% less than a sports subscription. I had been thinking of coming back to Sky but not now. Seems they are stuck in the satellite subscription era. 

[Tennis2023]

Contacted US Open organisation: and they told me to contact SKY. 

Contacted SKY via email: see https://www.sky.com/help/articles/how-to-make-a-complaint#email-us-only

Still waiting for a reply. I try every option. ( US Open, complaints to NOW TV, Sky, Tim Henman...) 

I did not pay to watch rugby: last 2 days 1 channel on NOW/TV has rugby instead of tennis for a couple of hours. 

[Chris11]

Completely agree — this coverage is garbage. Impossible to watch what you want when you want. Bring back Amazon!

[RoyB]

@SweetBlitz 

Fair analysis, but I think this is a case of follow the money. As you say, Sky have paid handsomely for the rights. So unless they are just p###ing in Amazon’s soup, they will want to see a monetary return. Hard to measure on Sky itself, with the contract situation on Sky Q, and even Sky Glass needs an investment up front for the puck, even though you can go a month at a time with that.

So the big takeup should be with Now; and while we have seen the Community swamped with people who have done that, the coverage is invariably negative - and more importantly, people are asking for, and receiving, refunds.

But most worrying through, it’s not just the people who are trying to watch on devices that don’t get bonus streams. It seems to be Sky’s basic unpreparedness to deliver On Demand catchup in a timely manner, even for the very small number of matches available this way.

If Sky can keep the rights, as you think they can, and do nothing to ameliorate all the issues ongoing now, there just won’t be a bump of Now subscribers for the 2024 US Open.

And that bump, or the lack of it, is Sky’s bellwether as to whether this particular game is worth the candle,

[SweetBlitz]

…we have seen the Community swamped with people who have done that…

Small potatoes. Less than 200 have signed the petition.  I suspect most people who subscribe to Now/Sky are happy enough with tennis from mid-afternoon into the wee small hours (self included).  Sky will give refunds to the few that aren’t.  Sky is not Amazon.  Tennis is one sport among others (and a pretty minor one in terms of subscribers).  Not demeaning tennis, which I enjoy, but I suspect more people subscribe to Sky for darts.  And I don’t think darts fans would expect to see every game on demand.  

[RoyB]

@SweetBlitz 

Then Sky should tremble if Amazon, who seem to have set the bar for customer expectations of coverage of the US Open, should ever set their sights on darts coverage 😛

I have no Sports pass myself to judge, but I did follow the BBC coverage of Wimbledon, and would have thought it a reasonable expectation that Sky would come up to that standard here. Though having seen the legendary delays in getting F1 sessions up On Demand, I did kind of wonder….

[Linetennis]

Hiya

Are people really getting refunds? I have just responded to SKY's response to my first complaint asking for a refund. I certainly hope it works - as we all agree this was a case of false advertising!

[RoyB]

@Linetennis 

No idea, I am afraid, what Sky would do, but you need to talk to Now, not Sky, if you want a refund for a Now Sports membership.

Reading all these US Open threads (!) people have had varying results - full refunds, partial refunds, even some refusals. If you get a refusal or you wouldn’t be satisfied with a partial refund, ask to be escalated to more senior support staff.

And if you think there has been false advertising here (I don’t dispute that, I just don’t know all the facts), a complaint to the ASA may be appropriate as well.

[WILLIAMS123]

@Ant11 

I totally agree with you..at least you should be able to access on-demand