DIRECTV Now, the AT&T-owned live streaming service which has experienced recurring technical issues since its debut, suffered another major meltdown last night while viewers were watching Sunday Night Football and other prime time programming.
Shortly after 9 p.m. ET, hundreds of DIRECTV Now subscribers began complaining on social media sites that they were getting an error message when they tried to watch any channel on the service.
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“@directvnow Generic Failure in UMS Provider System 503 503: Can I get my game back on please? #servicedown,” tweeted @buttaspoony.
“I’m trying to watch #WhoShotBiggieAndTupac @directvnow Fix this sh*t!,” demanded @poetif76, referring to the Fox documentary on the killing of the two rappers.
@DIRECTVNow, the service’s Twitter page, responded that subscribers should try re-setting their devices, but many responded back that that didn’t solve the problem.
Some subscribers said they got an error message that said DIRECTV Now’s servers had reached capacity, an indication that more people were watching than the live streamer could handle.
Many live streaming services, including DIRECTV Now, experience technical issues when traffic is higher than the servers can handle, such as during high-profile events like football games and season-ending episodes. Sunday night was expected to be a high-viewing evening with Sunday Night Football, the Fox documentary, and AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, all airing at the same time.
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“App just kicked me out & unable to log back in. 503 service unavailable: back end server is at capacity error. Help!” tweeted @jpalacios412.
It’s unclear how long the server issue lasted, or exactly how many subscribers were affected. But @DIRECTVNow began posting apologizes after midnight, saying the problem had been resolved and acknowledging it was a server problem.
“Hi Mike, we were actually experiencing a server issue. It should be up and running please logging (sic) back in,” @DIRECTVNow told one upset customer.
Despite the recurring technical issues, particularly in the first few months after launch in November 2016, AT&T said recently that DIRECTV Now had more than 500,000 paying subscribers.
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Seriously, who gives a rat’s ass who killed Biggie and Tupac? The important thing is they’re dead and no longer able to poison the culture with their garbage. This is like asking who killed Charles Manson, if that ever were to happen. Who…CARES!
I would care less too, but it’s a matter of a customer who is not getting the service they paid for. If he was watching the 24 hour static channel, he is still entitled to that.
I had the same thing happen the night they were to Announce a the winner on America’s got talent..i had recorded it. Same message when I went to watch it.is there a way to watch it?
Ah glad i went with sling fear the walking dead played fine.
Tried sling and it was actually worse!! But DirecTV Now is catching up…Just subscribed today, watched one channel, went out to do something else, signed back in and got the 503 error message. Just insane!
Two comments. First, we used DirecTV for over 20 years. We needed to reduce costs, so we’re using DirecTVNOW now. An easy transition? NO. Not at all. Second, the (experimental) DVR needs to have a much higher storage capacity than the woefully low 20 hours it now has.