Olympics 2012: DirecTV Goes Dark During Closing Ceremony

Olympics fans have already expressed their dissatisfaction over NBC's decision to show the London Games in tape delay. Now, those who subscribe to DirecTV in Los Angeles have another reason to be upset.

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The satellite provider went dark during Sunday night's Closing Ceremony at about 9:35 p.m. PT and stayed off for about 30 minutes.

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An on-air message told viewers, "Service will be restored as soon as technical difficulties are resolved."

DirecTV apologized to viewers in a statement.

"A technical issue at our broadcast center caused a brief disruption of the Los Angeles-based NBC HD signal this evening," the company said. "The signal was down for approximately a half-hour and was restored at 10:06 PT. We are looking into the cause and apologize to those customers who were affected."

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Incidentally, DirecTV sent out a tweet before the broadcast encouraging viewers to tune in.

"Watch the 2012 @Olympics Closing Ceremony tonight at 8/7c on NBC. RT if you will be watching!"

KNBC Los Angeles sent out a tweet to let its customers know the problem was being addressed.

"Sorry for the @NBCLA outage with @DIRECTV. We're working to get it resolved as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

Several viewers hit Twitter to express their frustration at the situation, including Modern Family's Sarah Hyland and her actor boyfriend Matt Prokop.

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"Really @directv? Or is it NBC? Idk. I just want to see Ed Sheeran and the spice girls :(" Hyland wrote.

Added Prokop, "Seriously @directv as soon as Ed Sheeran comes on the closing ceremony??"

Hyland's co-star Eric Stonestreet tweeted: "My directTv is out. Someone describe the spice girls to me. Very slowly. Slower. Slooooooower. Now faster. And faster. Now slow again."

The Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzarra added: "Cool, we can rock out to the awesome DirecTV Customer Service music."

Film producer Troy Daniel Smith (Lonely Boy) also weighed in with a sarcastic comment that included a photo of on-air message posted by DirecTV: "Enjoying the HD telecast of #Olympics Closing Ceremonies on @DirecTV"

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Several other viewers chimed in on Twitter with similar sentiments. Among them:

Michael Linder
Unbelievable! @DirecTV totally loses @NBCOlympics feed in Los Angeles!

Ashleyygeee
Sure, directv, that's fine. Just cut out when I'm trying to watch @edsheeran. It's cool, I wasn't looking forward to it or anything.

Ryan Ritchie
How convenient that NBC is the ONLy station experiencing technical difficulties, and during the closing ceremonies. Thanks @directv.

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Brent Weinstein
Epic #Olympics fail by DirecTV and NBC ... all other channels working fine.