Union Berlin: Massive RTL problems cause fan frustration with Europa League hits

Europe League

Soccer fans have been getting upset about the fragmentation of broadcasting rights for years. While there used to be only one broadcaster, Sky or Premiere, who had the rights for the Bundesliga, Champions League and Cup, other rights holders were added in the form of Dazn and now also Magenta-TV, Amazon Video and RTL.

The Europa League and Europa Conference League are now running on “TV Now”. The streaming service, which is also marketed as “RTL Plus”, has long focused on in-house reality TV formats, but has high ambitions and wants to open up new target groups with the football program.

At the start of the second half of the season in the Europa League, there was a discount campaign to win over the last Leverkusen, Freiburg and Union fans for “RTL Plus”. Apparently it worked so well that the streaming service collapsed under the high ratings for the game between Ajax Amsterdam and Union Berlin.

Discount campaign brings “RTL Plus” to its knees

“Ten euros for all German Europa League games until the end of the season” was the tempting offer, with which the fans could of course also be unlucky if the teams were eliminated from the competition in the near future.

Apparently, many fans struck right away so as not to miss the top game between Ajax and Union. But the RTL servers were overwhelmed by the onslaught, and in the end the majority of fans couldn’t log in at all. “netzwelt.de” registered over 36,000 error messages for the app at the start of the game.

Criticism for RTL in social media

Users vented their anger on Twitter. “Incomprehensible. I only bought your subscription to watch football and then it doesn’t work“complains a new customer. Another posts the insufficient error message from the RTL app: “Oops, something unexpected happened here.”

“RTL Plus becomes RTL Minus,” jokes another user. “If you don’t want to watch the Uefa Europa League today, I recommend RTL Plus,” is his customer rating.

The stream continued until the half-time break. Viewers were thanked for their patience with a tactically shaped game, in which the Union was probably closer to victory than the opponent and ultimately played 0-0.

With the draw in the first leg, Union reduced the difficult European task against Ajax to just one game – in the stadium at the Alte Försterei (February 23, 9 p.m.). Morten Thorsby, whose remarkable goal was conceded in the 65th minute because of a handball, is nevertheless confident with the result. “We’re stronger at home,” he reveals confidently.

Morten Thorsby had the two best chances of the evening.Image: imago / / Matthias Koch

The game next Thursday should be extra exciting and will then be shown on RTL TV. RTL has secured the rights up to and including next season. Who knows where European Cup football will go after that. Maybe continue on “TV Now”, maybe on “Disney Plus”.