NBC’s streaming service Peacock has experienced bugs and errors throughout its coverage of the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina. Perhaps the biggest and most inconvenient one has been when the broadcasts randomly cut to advertisements in the midst of the action.
While this issue has been prevalent throughout the games, it’s biggest offense came during Sunday morning’s coverage of the men’s hockey match between Canada and France.
Canada, the heavy favorites for the gold medal, was up 10-2 in a demolition of Les Blues when the streamer suddenly cut to a commercial break in the middle of the action. By the time the broadcast resumed, Canadian enforcer Tom Wilson had discarded his gloves and was being skated to the penalty box.
It turns out, while advertisements were playing, Wilson got into the first fight of these Winter Games with French defenseman Pierre Crinon.
Fighting in Olympic hockey results in an automatic ejection, which means this may have been the only altercation fans will see in the entire tournament.
But, thanks to the error, the only way fans watching on the streaming service knew what happened came from a brief replay of the melee.
Peacock cut to commercial and deprived viewers of the first fight in Winter Olympic hockey
Canada’s Tom Wilson (L) and France’s Pierre Crinon (R) clashed in the contest
By the time the streaming service returned from commercial, the fight ended and Wilson was being led away to the tunnel – as fighting in Olympic hockey results in an automatic ejection
After Crinon was caught elbowing Canadian star Nathan MacKinnon up high, Wilson delivered a heavy hit on the Frenchman, leading to a brief exchange of punches.
Video from a Czechia journalist showed the action spilling over as Wilson appeared to go back at Crinon – with the two continuing to fight inside of the goal crease before being separated.
Cameras caught Wilson walking down the tunnel to the locker room as a result of his ejection.
The Daily Mail has reached out to NBC Sports for comment on this matter.
Fans on social media were livid over the error from the streamer that deprived them of an entertaining moment.
‘Thanks @peacock just missed a huge play that led to an ejection maybe do your commercials when there’s a spot for them :/’ one angry fan posted to X.
Another wrote, ‘Peacock just missed the entire Wilson fight because it went to commercial for some reason.’
‘would have loved to see the on ice drama for hockey instead of cutting to an ad break @peacock,’ read another post.
Fans were outraged by the broadcaster’s error and expressed their rage on social media
Canada, who are heavy favorites for a gold medal, demolished the French team 10-2
‘PEACOCK I MISSED A FIGHT BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO RUN ADS,’ another angry viewer wrote.
One profane comment said, ‘The goddamn NBC Peacock feed went from commercial to Tom Wilson standing outside the box. I f***ing hate NBC with a passion.’
‘peacock putting a commercial break over the Tom Wilson fight…i am going to lose my mind,’ another post said.
One user replied to the Peacock X account under an unaffiliated post, saying, ‘Hey, when you’re streaming a Hockey game, don’t show an ad until they’re shoveling the ice. You’ve had 20+ games now to figure that out yet we just missed probably the only fight we might get during this tournament. Do better.’
Throughout the Olympics, Peacock has been hit with multiple technical issues – including timeouts and severe lagging.
But the advertisements have been a particular sticking point – not only for their constant cutting-in to live action, but also through the mandatory and un-skippable 15 second videos shown before whenever someone clicks to watch an event (even if the event has already begun).
Wilson tallied a goal and an assist in the 10-2 victory as nine players scored goals in the team’s final group stage contest.