Amazon under fire for 'nightmare' US Open coverage

Amazon has come under fire for its coverage of the US Open, with the internet giant facing calls to return coverage of the competition to Sky Sports and Eurosport.

Earlier this year Amazon secured a $40m five-year deal to broadcast the Grand Slam in what marks the US firm’s latest foray into the world of tennis, having already secured UK rights to the ATP World Tour.

Amazon’s coverage of the US Open is provided to subscribers to its Prime service, which costs £79 a year and includes access to the streaming of music, films and TV shows such as The Grand Tour.

But users have been far from impressed with Amazon’s coverage. By the fourth day of the event, 711 out of 868 customers had awarded the service just one star.

“There is no replay option, no ability to record [and] the picture quality is very poor,” said one tennis fan. “It’s like going back in time 25 years.”

“What a disappointment this is so far,” said another. “Poor picture quality, sound dropping out of sync, constant buffering. Just a nightmare. And no effort on the homepage to show the schedule of play, timings etc. As someone who watches every tournament (until now), I am hugely disappointed that Amazon is now my only option.”

Others urged Amazon to “give tennis back to Sky and Eurosport”, both of which used to broadcast the event before the internet firm secured exclusive broadcast rights in April of this year.

Amazon was so inundated with complaints at the start of the tournament that it reportedly stopped fans from posting more bad reviews.

According to The Guardian, users who attempted to leave a review on Wednesday were met with the following message: “This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews. There can be a number of reasons for this, including unusual reviewing activity.”

Amazon said that reviewers were not being deliberately blocked from posting and rating it’s US Open. Instead, it put the issue down to an IT glitch the company has since appeared to fix.

A spokeswoman for Amazon.co.uk said at the time: “We are working with customers to address specific issues – we listen to all customer feedback and are always working to improve all aspects of our service.”