Amazon Prime Video’s broadcast of Friday’s game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs missed an entire play thanks to an administrative error by the officiating crew.
With 6:50 to go in the first quarter, Raiders punter AJ Cole dropped a punt at the 1-yard line to end a drive. There was a flag on the play, but the officials signaled that it was against the Chiefs, suggesting the penalty would be declined and the play would stand. It was under that assumption that the Prime Video broadcast went to a commercial.
There was just one problem. As announcer Al Michaels explained after the break, the penalty had actually been against the Raiders, and the officials made the wrong signal. As a result, the Raiders had to punt again, which instead was downed at the Chiefs’ 23. Amazon did not air that punt live, as the broadcast remained in commercial.
The Amazon broadcast misses a punt play after an administrative error by the officials, originally signaling a penalty against the Chiefs instead of the Raiders. The fixing of the penalty call and the re-punt by the Raiders occurred while Amazon was in a commercial break.
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) November 29, 2024
The error appeared to be on the officials and not Amazon, though it was not clear why they did not break into the commercial break once it became apparent that the referees had erred in announcing the penalty. The broadcast was still criticized for failing to show a replay of the second punt, though.
That was 100% on the officials. The referee miscalled the penalty and Amazon was already in commercial break before they rectified the error. There was no way for Amazon to bail out of the break and come back to catch the second punt. https://t.co/azeNMzJF1R
— Matt Derrick (@mattderrick) November 29, 2024
All told, Amazon missed a fairly unremarkable punt. There are certainly worse times to cut to a commercial. Still, it’s very rare that any live broadcast outright misses a play for any reason, so it isn’t a great look for Amazon.
