Former Cincinnati Bengals star Chad Johnson eagerly waited to watch his team take on the Detroit Lions in the preseason. However, thanks to a blackout, he could not watch the part of the game that he was especially interested in.
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“You know what I don’t like? Because of the region I’m in, I tried everything to watch this game,” Ocho said on Nightcap. “I just wanted to see the first two series of the game because I knew Joe [Burrow] and the whole staff was playing, and I was kind of upset because of the region I’m in. I was able to get every single NFL game. I did all the extra ads and bought the subscriptions with NFL, and I still couldn’t get it.
“I did everything. I just wanted to see those two series so I would be able to have a better assessment of the game and how they looked, and obviously I just saw highlights.”
Head coach Zac Taylor wanted his starters to get some real action vs the Lions. Quarterback Joe Burrow and the starting offensive line played two series, and things looked good on paper. He completed 5 of 6 passes for 39 yards, an okay start. However, Burrow was sacked on his first drive itself, and is dealing with a wrist injury.
Even though Johnson wanted to watch the initial series for a proper analysis, it wouldn’t have been a pretty watch.
Regional channels airing preseason games orchestrate blackouts because they have exclusive rights to broadcast them. A national blackout also happens to honor those rights. In Cincinnati, the game was covered on TV only by Fox 19. NFL+ and Fubo had streaming rights to the game.
Turns out, Johnson wasn’t the only one having a rough night in trying to catch the game. Thursday’s preseason slate came with a side of tech headaches for plenty of NFL+ subscribers.
Users reported they couldn’t log in, or worse, were prompted to buy a subscription they already had. NFL analyst Warren Sharp called it out publicly, pushing the league to consider refunds for fans locked out of games they’d already paid for.
NFL+ pitches live out-of-market preseason games as a big selling point, and its own guidance says fans can watch those games live through the service. The league even points people to troubleshooting tips and suggests updating your app or device if something’s not working.
Of the six games that night, three aired on ESPN Unlimited or NFL Network, while the other three were only on NFL+, according to Decider. Plans run $6.99 to $14.99 a month, so this wasn’t about free access. These were paying customers.
So far, the NFL hasn’t issued any public statement confirming a wider outage.