Business

Users slam NBC’s ‘frustrating’ Olympics streaming app

As they struggle to stream live video coverage of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, many users of the NBC Sports app are feeling the agony of defeat.

NBC Sports’ app for Olympics coverage has been slammed by nearly 20,000 one-star reviews on Apple’s App Store, dogged by complaints of annoying commercials, dropped signals and a lack of options for users who aren’t already cable subscribers.

“Most frustrating app I’ve ever used,” a reviewer with the handle “Joe clays” posted on the iTunes store. “Literally, 10 seconds before the finish a commercial gets dropped and when it comes back, the race is OVER!”

Another complained that “watching replays is ridiculously difficult because I have to sit through 3-5 ads before I can see any coverage, and anytime I want to skip ahead and see a specific competitor I watch another 3-5 ads.”

Asked about the issues, an NBC Sports spokesman said that video-streaming consumption is at record levels, adding that “bit rates are high and rebuffering is low.”

“We’re very pleased with our digital performance so far as evidenced by 55 million unique users having consumed more than 1.5 billion minutes of Olympic action, more than London and Sochi combined,” he said.