News

Turner Sports Offering Refunds for “The Match” After Live Stream Errors

Published

7 years ago

November 26, 2018

Good news…you may just be off the hook for that $19.99 you paid to watch “The Match” between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson.

And no, you’re not getting a refund because Tiger lost.

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Turner Sports, who owns the Bleacher Report, announced today that they would be issuing refunds to anyone who purchased The Match live stream. The reason being an error that allowed many B/R users to stream the event at no cost.

Not long after the broadcast began, many users went to Twitter to announce that they were streaming the event without having to pay the $19.99 fee.

Tiger vs. Phil time #thematch

Also BR Live is an absolute shit show. It wouldn’t let me purchase and now I’m somehow watching for free.

Thanks?

— Jay Warner (@JayWarner17) November 23, 2018

Got some free golf here. #TheMatch

— Ross Schofield (@rosswschofield) November 24, 2018

According to B/R, an issue was discovered with the site’s payment gateway and a quick decision was made to remove the paywall entirely.

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To provide some clarity, Turner Sports issued a statement saying:

“We decided to take down the paywall to ensure that fans who already purchased the event would not miss any action. This did not impact the live streaming of the competition and fans were treated to an event that was both engaging and memorable. Unfortunately, the prematch technical issue did occur, and we will offer fans who purchased the event on B/R Live a refund.”

Some of the cable providers who had made The Match available on PPV have also committed to providing refunds, but not all providers have issued statements yet, leaving some customers wondering if they’ll get their $19.99 back.

Wondering if @DIRECTV & @ATT are going refund my $19.99 for #TheMatch since it was avail free to so many. @DIRECTVService

— B Stentz (@bjgs263) November 25, 2018

It’s not entirely clear how such a highly promoted event could be hit with such a baffling Pay-Per-View error, but there’s no doubt the mistake will be a costly one for Turner Sports.