Amazon Broadcast Crashes in Final Minute of Its Biggest NBA Game Yet

Amazon’s first NBA postseason broadcast had a significant blunder.

With less than a minute left in overtime of the play-in tournament game between the Hornets and the Heat, the Prime Video broadcast crashed.

The Hornets were ahead, 123–120, with 48.1 seconds left when the stream went to black.

After about 20 seconds of dead air, a blue screen popped up that read “Technical Difficulties” flashed on screen alongside the NBA on Prime logo. The screen was on air for approximately 90 seconds, putting the total dead air at close to two minutes of real time.

Around 22 seconds of game action was missed during the dead period, during which LaMelo Ball scored to put Charlotte ahead by five. The broadcast resumed during a Heat timeout.

There would be no additional technical difficulties during the broadcast. Charlotte would go on to win the game, 127–126. 

Amazon’s issues led to widespread complaints online. 

Lakers star LeBron James tweeted: “Tell me the game didn’t just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH.”

ESPN’s Pat McAfee posted a video of his TV showing “Technical Difficulties” and joked that the Spectrum Center may have blown a fuse.

Amazon provided the following statement:

“Tonight’s broadcast of the Miami Heat at Charlotte Hornets experienced a temporary disruption due to a hardware failure in our production truck. Our teams restored the feed as quickly as possible to ensure fans could watch the conclusion of the game. We are conducting a thorough internal review to determine the cause of the outage.”

The NBA and the Hornets did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Amazon, alongside NBC, is a new NBA media partner this year as part of an 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal.