Ajax supporters turned on KIJK on Thursday evening after the FC Sion v Ajax stream was made available only behind a paywall. Shortly before kick-off, several viewers said the broadcast was stuttering, freezing or not starting at all, despite paying €4.99 to watch the match.
FC Sion v Ajax in the Conference League play-offs is not being shown on a regular television channel. Because the broadcasting rights for qualifying matches belong to the home club, FC Sion were free to decide who to sell them to. Ajax’s previous European away games at Vojvodina and Shelbourne went out on Ziggo Sport, but Sion chose KIJK this time.
KIJK are therefore offering FC Sion v Ajax on a pay-per-view basis. Supporters have to create a free account and then pay €4.99 for the livestream, which was scheduled to go live at around 20:00 ahead of the 20:15 kick-off. Fans can watch the stream on a laptop, tablet, smartphone and smart TV, among other devices, but that is exactly when things started going wrong for many of them.
Frustration quickly spilled onto X. Jeffrey responded cynically: “Lovely, pay five euros and then the stream doesn’t work. What a surprise, again.” Another user also reported problems: “The FC Sion v Ajax stream doesn’t work. Still paid five euros. KIJK gives error message 224003.”
Several other supporters are now openly asking KIJK for their money back. Rick kept it short: “Yes, I want my money back!”, while Saskia was equally clear: “So, how do I get my money back as quickly as possible?” Léon felt the problems made for a terrible start to the broadcast and wrote: “Nice one, KIJK, it’s already going wrong now.”
Abroad, the criticism is growing too. KIJK had said beforehand that the livestream would be available worldwide, with the exception of Switzerland, but Cita says she is still having problems from Spain. “You can watch Ajax’s match everywhere, except in Spain. So it was possible from your holiday address after all?”, the supporter wondered.