Viaplay opens hotline for angry Formula 1 viewer

It is raining complaints about Viaplay’s Formula 1 stream. After the necessary you-baking, the company takes the customer seriously and opens a hotline for angry viewers.

Initially Viaplay’s response was that it was the viewers’ internet connection, but now that the Consumers’ Association and even the ACM have become involved, the company is once again scratching its head. If so many people are dissatisfied, there might be something wrong.

Viaplay Hotline

So the company opens a real emergency number to call if your stream goes wrong while you just watch Mick Schumacher park his car in a wall or Charles Leclerc enter the pit lane at a special moment. Vice president Andrea Sahlgren of the subscriptions department puts it this way in De Telegraaf:

We feel an enormous responsibility. We like to listen to our customers and find a way to improve our services. For this it is important to have individual contact.

Perhaps it is a charm offensive, but the Scandinavians apparently cannot sustain it any longer on a shaky internet connection. In the same message, the top woman still smears a lot of syrup around the mouth of the Dutch viewer, who is nevertheless very important for Viaplay (read: the Dutch market) and that a good performance must therefore also be delivered.

Sahlgren does not want to say how many Dutch people have actually taken out a subscription to the streaming service. The newspaper estimates that there are about half a million.

KPN and Ziggo

At the moment it is also possible for KPN and Ziggo customers to watch the Viaplay Xtra channel, which broadcasts the race linearly and thus provides a more stable viewing experience. This channel would remain on the air until the summer break in August, but the agreement between Viaplay and the cable companies has been extended until the end of the year. Ziggo also confirms to De Telegraaf.

Andrea Sahlgren is quick to say that this extension has nothing to do with the complaints about the stuttering streams. We hope that Viaplay has its telephone exchange in good order.