Eleven Sports endured a challenging start to life as Britain’s newest sports broadcaster after its coverage of the US PGA Championship encountered technical problems, which included some viewers missing Brooks Koepka’s decisive putt.

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Founded by the Leeds owner, Andrea Radrizzani, Eleven Sports grabbed headlines this summer when it announced its arrival in the UK by snatching live coverage of La Liga and Serie A football from Sky Sports and BT respectively. The final golf major of the year was covered by BBC last year and before that Sky, and served as a launch event for the service.

Eleven Sports’ coverage received criticism, with users complaining on social media about everything from a lack of log-in information to microphones picking up noises from American commentators.

More significantly, there were problems with the picture feed. On Friday, viewers watching on Facebook were confronted with a blank screen, while on Sunday night the desktop service cut out just as Koepka was on the 18th green.

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“After delivering almost 40 hours of comprehensive live coverage across four days of the PGA Championship, we are aware of a technical issue which briefly affected a small minority of customers at the end of the final round,” said a spokesperson for Eleven Sports. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused and we are working to ensure these issues do not occur in future.”

Eleven Sports already operates in six other countries and will soon be available in 11. In the UK, unlike Sky and BT Sports, it offers programmes through an “over the top” internet service. While it is yet to strike a deal that would allow its content to be shown on Sky, BT or Virgin Media, Eleven Sports has agreed a free-to-air partnership with Facebook.

OTT services are seen by experts as being the future of sports broadcasting and Eleven Sports has stolen a march on larger rivals by entering this space. But while an internet-only service offers simplicity and greater flexibility, the absence of an established platform like Sky supporting Eleven Sports’ content also means there is no room to hide when the service encounters problems.

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With La Liga and Serie A kicking off this weekend, Eleven is set to be under scrutiny not just from viewers who could be paying a third sports subscription, but also rival broadcasters.

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One unexpected beneficiary of Eleven’s PGA troubles was the Guardian. Live coverage of the final round on the Guardian website, driven by Scott Murray, saw a huge spike in traffic at the end of play, apparently driven by frustrated viewers trying to confirm Koepka was the winner.