Paramount+ stream of Scottish Premier League title decider fails for U.S. viewers

Paramount+ frustrated soccer fans as its streaming service failed to load coverage of the most anticipated Scottish Premier League title decider in decades between Celtic and Hearts on Saturday.

For 41 years, the title has been shared between only two clubs, Celtic and Rangers. But this season has been a rarity as a third challenger as emerged, as Hearts, without a league triumph in 65 years, went into the final day top of the Premiership. Celtic went on to win the game 3-1 with two late goals and deny Hearts an historic title.

The match was listed during the first half to be available for streaming on Paramount+, the over the top streaming service owned by Paramount Skydance, for viewers in the United States. However, when subscribers to the platform clicked to tune in for the game (which kicked off at 7.30am ET), they received a message that said “fatal error: we’re having trouble playing this video… check your internet connection or router and try again.”

However, dozens of reactions across social media demonstrated the issue was widespread and was not about a single user’s internet connection.

Daniel Kenig wrote on X: “Biggest game of the @spfl and a title decider between Celtic and Hearts want to watch it but your severs have crashed! Pathetic.”

Another user @adkcontrarian wrote to Paramount+ on X and said: “I pay money for Paramount just to watch soccer. Scottish Soccer has his most exciting title rate in 40 years. I tune in to watch the deciding game on Paramount and this is what I get. On not one not two but three different devices.“

Another user, @James_Skrmetta, wrote: “SHOCKING performance from Paramount+ where no one can seem to access the Celtic vs. Hearts stream. Only the biggest game in Scottish Premier League history!”

Paramount+ was approached by The Athletic for comment but did not respond by the time of publication.

By half-time, the listing for the game appeared to have been removed altogether on Paramount+.

The game was available on the CBS Sports Network cable channel, which requires separate subscriptions to Paramount+ but is not included in a Paramount+ subscription. The channel requires a TV provider or live TV streaming subscription such as YouTube TV or Direct TV to watch, the latter of which tends to cost between $65 and $90 per month, depending on the platform and offer.

In a preview of the game, the CBS Sports website promoted coverage of the game across both the CBS Sports Network channel but also via streaming on Paramount+.