With the Atlanta Falcons up big vs. the New England Patriots in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Super Bowl LI, viewers using the Fox Sports Go app saw their live stream of the game interrupted.
The drop in coverage was quickly resolved, according to Fox Sports, which at 6:51 p.m. PT tweeted from its Fox Sports Go Help Twitter account: “We're aware of the streaming issue, and it's been resolved. Please close and reopen the stream to get back to the game.”
The drop in streaming coverage was long enough for streaming viewers to miss several key plays in New England’s fourth-quarter comeback, with the Patriots outscoring the Falcons 19-0 in the quarter, and eventually winning the game in overtime (the first overtime game in Super Bowl history) 34-28.
A Fox Sports spokesman said the network was investigating the cause of the interruption.
Fox offered streaming of Super Bowl LI via FOXSportsGo.com and its app for free, without requiring pay TV authentication, and anticipated handling at least double the nearly 4 million unique viewers who streamed Super Bowl L last year (via CBS).
Ahead of Sunday’s game, the broadcaster told Multichannel News it was doing what it could to anticipate the influx of unique streaming viewers for the game, including the addition of a third content delivery network (Limelight Networks) partner to help manage regular, authenticated Fox Sports Go viewers.
