When some Sky Movies customers tried to watch a live stream of the Oscars ceremony yesterday (February 24) on NOW TV, they were presented with an error message saying that the site was down for routine maintenance.
© PA Images / Chris Pizzello / AP
Oscars 2013: Seth MacFarlane's opening skit
© PA Images / Ian West / PA Wire
Oscars 2013 acting winners
The problem appeared to be affecting NOW TV across various different devices, including tablets, PCs and games consoles.
This led to a flood of criticism on Twitter, which escalated after NOW TV admitted that there was never any scheduled maintenance at that time, and the original message should not have appeared.
NOW TV apologised repeatedly for the issues on its Twitter feed last night, and a Sky spokesman has today revealed more details on what went wrong.
He told Digital Spy that an "unforeseen technical fault" had hit the live Oscars coverage, and pay-TV giant Sky is currently investigating the problem.
"We're very sorry for the problems customers experienced last night when trying to watch Sky Movies' coverage of the Oscars through NOW TV," said the spokesman.
"This was caused by an unforeseen technical fault which we are currently investigating.
"The service is now operating normally and NOW TV customers can watch a re-run of the ceremony at 2pm today and midday on Saturday on Sky Movies Showcase HD."
Were you affected by the NOW TV streaming problems for the Oscars 2013? Let us know below...
Oscars 2013: 85th Academy Awards winners in pictures:
Acting winners Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables) and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
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Copyright: PA Images Ian West / PA Wire
