For Some Cord Cutters, Streaming Super Bowl Was a Nonstarter

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Watching the Super Bowl over the weekend turned out to be a not-so-superb experience for some owners of streaming devices like the Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast.

When the big game aired on Sunday, dozens of people trying to live-stream the Super Bowl through the CBS Sports app took to Twitter to report problems with the service. The issue appeared to be tied to CBS’s service rather than the devices themselves, as some Apple TV and Chromecast users said all their apps worked except for the CBS Sports app on Sunday.

Representatives for Apple and Google directed press inquiries to CBS. Annie Rohrs, a CBS spokeswoman, declined to comment. However, CBS’s support account on Twitter acknowledged a temporary failure of its service for Apple TV users.

Multiple users reported getting a black screen when loading the CBS Sports app on Apple TV. M.G. Siegler, a venture capitalist, said that on his new Apple TV, the app initially worked but cut out, loading nothing but a black screen. After two dozen attempts to reopen the app, he gave up and streamed the game from the CBS website.

Some Chromecast users had other problems. Robert Utter, of North Stonington, Conn., said apps for PBS and Netflix worked perfectly, but the CBS Sports app failed to stream the game to his television. He ended up watching the game on his computer on his dining room table. “Needless to say, I was angry and disappointed,” he said.

Despite the hiccups, CBS said its live stream drew 3.96 million unique viewers across streaming devices, computers and mobile devices, representing 3.5 percent of the overall 111.9 million viewers of the Super Bowl.

One conclusion is that for cord cutters, an antenna could be a more reliable way to watch the Super Bowl after all, so long as you can pull in a strong signal.