According to Downdetector, a site that lets users report outages, almost 600 people reported problems by 7.15pm, although the number of outages declined from there. By 8.30, 143 outages were reported.
A Sky TV spokesperson said it was aware of a technical issue impacting Sky Sport Now customers Friday evening.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible,” they said at the time.
Some users took to social media to vent their frustrations.
RNZ sports writer Jamie Wall posted an image of the error and said: “So cool that @skysportnz ask us to pay $549 a year for this”.
Former Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins labelled Sky Sport Now an “absolute joke” amid the difficulties.
The error comes days after Sky TV announced it would be increasing the price of its sports package by almost 12% from May.
In an email to customers, Sky said the move would raise the monthly cost from $42 to $47.
“This increase allows us to continue delivering you an unrivalled sporting line-up,” Sky said in the message.
