Celtic vs. Heart Scottish Credit: CBS Sports
By Sean Keeley on

One of the biggest frustrations of the modern sports-watching age is figuring out which network or streaming service has the rights to the event you want to watch, and then whether you need to pay for it and/or whether the service you currently use even has access to it.

Here’s a new wrinkle. What if you figure out which streamer was broadcasting the game and sign up to watch it only to find out they never intended to broadcast it to begin with?

That appears to have been the case for those who booted up Paramount+ on Saturday to watch the Scottish Premiership title deciding-match between Celtic and Hearts.

The match was one of the most anticipated in Scottish Premiership history as it had the chance to break the 41-year streak of either Celtic or Rangers winning the title. Hearts, which hasn’t hoisted the trophy in 65 years, went into the final day of the season atop the Premiership table. A win over Celtic would complete their epic season.

Alas, Celtic won, 3-1, thanks to two late goals. Celtic hoisted the championship trophy, while Hearts’ faithful had their hearts crushed.

Here in the States, the match was listed as available for streaming on Paramount+. However, when eager audiences tuned in at 7:30 a.m. ET, they were met with a message that read “fatal error: we’re having trouble playing this video… check your internet connection or router and try again.”

While that message would imply the issue was on the user side, reactions across social media suggested it was very much a Paramount+ problem.

Adam Crafton at The Athletic dug into the matter and discovered that the match had been mistakenly promoted on the CBS Sports website as being available on Paramount+ and also mistakenly visible on the Paramount+ app in the first half. The listing for game access had been removed by the second half.

According to Crafton, CBS Sports decided before the game that it would be shown exclusively on CBS Sports Network. The game would not be accessible with a Paramount+ subscription, but rather through a cable or live TV provider login, such as YouTube TV or DirecTV.

Clearly, no one got the memo that CBS Sports had made this decision, as the CBS Sports website promoted coverage of the game on both the CBS Sports Network channel and on Paramount+ beforehand, per Crafton.

Clips of the match shared on CBS Sports social channels also included Paramount+ branding.

Not only was the whole episode incredibly frustrating for those who wanted to watch the historic match, but it’s also a good reminder that even when you have access that you’ve paid for, corporations like Paramount Skydance, Disney, and NBCUniversal still have a lot of different ways to get you to pay even more when they know they’ve got you. Stay vigilant.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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