Did you have a problem streaming last night’s NBC broadcast of the annual Golden Globes awards show? If so, you were not alone.
NBC surprised online viewers by blacking out the telecast on all streaming services, including DIRECTV Now, Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and even the NBC app which can normally be watched by pay TV subscribers if they authenticate their subscriptions with a password and user name.
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The network did not give a reason for the blackout at its web site, or respond to inquiries last night by journalists. But the decision to prevent streaming services from showing the Globes certainly provoked a number of comments from online viewers.
“NBC lost so many viewers by not streaming the @goldenglobes. It’s 2017. Wake up,” wrote @TracyAnderson87 on Twitter.
“So pissed at NBC for not streaming the #GoldenGlobes,” tweeted #LauraPrubio. Several online viewers noted in their tweets the irony that streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix were winning Golden Globes last night while live streaming of the event was blacked out. (Netflix’s The Crown won for Best TV Drama while Billy Bob Thornton won Best Actor in a Drama TV Series for Amazon’s Goliath.)
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Last night’s snafu was another black eye for live streaming, although the blackout was no fault of the providers this time. In the past, live streaming services have suffered system crashes and frequent picture buffering during major events such as the Oscars, Super Bowl and season finales.
— Phillip Swann
