Yahoo's first-ever live stream of an NFL game has been a disaster for many
The NFL game in London between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills is the league's first game to ever be streamed live online by Yahoo and for many, the experience has been terrible so far.
Once we get past the idea of watching two unappealing teams on a smaller screen than usual and at 9:00 in the morning, the stream itself has been awful for many.
As somebody who consumes a lot of sports and often streams several games at once, this was one of the worst live streams I have seen in a long time.
While I didn't expect perfection in Yahoo's first attempt at an NFL live stream, there were far too many instances of the screen going blurry.
The more common problem was the stream freezing and jumping, something that happened every few plays for me.
It was so bad at time that I actually double-checked my normally reliable internet connection to make sure I was receiving my typical 90 Mbps.
My internet was fine.
My experience was not the exception. A quick search of Twitter found dozens of other users with similar problems.
Some people couldn't even get the stream to work at all.
Yahoo paid the NFL $20 million for the right to broadcast this game over the internet and things haven't gone well for this venture from the beginning. Demand for commercial airtime was not good, with many of the spots reportedly being sold for less than half of the $200,000 Yahoo was originally charging for 30-second commercials.
This is not to say everybody is having problems. Others have told me their stream is working great and the picture is perfect. But for some at least, this is not the case.
Of course, considering the teams involved and the early 27-10 blowout in the first half, maybe this is for the best.
