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Sport
David Byrom

Amazon apologise as sound problems hit coverage of Newcastle United's trip to Crystal Palace

Football fans have hit out at the sound quality during Amazon Prime's coverage of Newcastle United's trip to Crystal Palace.

The game is Amazon's second match coverage of the season, with the internet giant being handed the rights due to the Premier League's decision to scrap their controversial pay-per-view system for matches played behind-closed-doors.

Yet the start of the coverage was marred by a static sound that could be heard over presenter Simon Thomas and pundits Alan Shearer and Clinton Morrison.

It left many fans - and Newcastle midfielder Isaac Hayden - demanding better coverage from Amazon, with viewers having to pay to be subscribed to Prime in order to watch.

It led presenter Thomas to apologise for any issues viewers had.

He said: "Apologies to any of our Prime Video customers who've been having one or two sound problems in the build-up to this game.

"We're working on getting everything sorted and we hope it will be fine very, very soon."

The fact Amazon are even broadcasting the match represents a coup to the internet giant, who originally were only scheduled to show 20 Premier League matches this season.

Amazon won the rights to show games in 2018, with last season representing the first year their deal to air matches began.

Their first round of 10 matches attracted a record number of sign-ups to the retailer's Prime service, with millions of fans tuning in.

Prime costs £79 a year or £7.99 a month to subscribe to, with users getting other perks such as being able to stream TV shows and getting free delivery of purchases.

The company spent a reported £90m for three years of coverage and they will show two full rounds of Premier League fixtures in December, including during the Christmas period.

That means Newcastle's games against Leeds United and Liverpool will also be on the internet service.

Newcastle's other matches in December will be shown on Sky Sports and BT Sport.

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