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Lamarcus Joyner #20 of the Los Angeles Rams returns an interception during the third quarter in the game against the Indianapolis Colts at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 10, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Streaming service DAZN, which acquired digital rights to NFL games in July, is in damage-control mode after its first online football broadcasts in Canada were beset by quality issues.Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Streaming service DAZN is in damage-control mode after its first online football broadcasts in Canada were beset by quality issues.

"Our debut in Canada did not go as planned. No excuses – it is not how we wanted our journey to start in a country of such passionate fans," Alex Rice, DAZN's managing director of rights and strategic development, said in a statement on Thursday.

Independently owned DAZN announced its acquisition of the digital rights to National Football League games in July, allowing NFL fans to access broadcasts through its "over the top" streaming service for $20 per month.

The launch was one more sign of the growing competition for viewers who are questioning the price of traditional TV packages and migrating to digital platforms in search of the programs they want to watch, on-demand.

But starting last week, as the service began streaming its first games, users took to social media to complain of video that was choppy or not working at all, audio glitches, games that were delayed or listed incorrectly and issues connecting to the service.

"We've seen some issues around streaming that we hadn't seen during the test phase," Mr. Rice said in an interview Friday.

The audio issues during the game between the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Rams on Thursday were due to human error at one of DAZN's satellite suppliers, Mr. Rice said. "We pick those suppliers; it's our responsibility," he said.

Users were also locked out of being able to view certain games, seeing error codes instead; this affected certain devices more than others, and DAZN has been in touch with device manufacturers to address the problem. Mr. Rice said the company has seen fewer complaints since the weekend on that issue.

Fixes still in progress include issues with picture quality, and time lags on the broadcasts. The picture quality is partly device-related and partly related to DAZN's problems maintaining its connections for users. The time lag between live play and the streaming broadcast is normal for streaming services, but in DAZN's case has been much longer than expected – sometimes at more than a minute. This is a problem with some feeds more than others, Mr. Rice said. The service's access to a broadcast feed from the NFL Network is different than for a TSN broadcast; the latter had longer delays, he said. "That's not TSN's issue, it's simply that we have different service providers for the paths [to access] the games," he added. "We saw last night that some of those still need to be cut down."

DAZN, which is based in the U.K., already operates streaming services in four other markets: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan. Occasionally there have been initial glitches in other markets, Mr. Rice said. The company runs tests and analysis before launching, but issues can crop up once the service goes live.

The company says it is working to fix those issues, and will be contacting customers who were affected to offer compensation such as extensions of the free trial and refunds in some cases.

"We've got to build some customer confidence," Mr. Rice said.

Earlier this week, the NFL released a statement saying the league was "aware of the issues" and apologizing for the problems with the service.

"We are absolutely committed to working with DAZN to provide our fans with the NFL experience that they deserve," Michael Markovich, NFL vice-president of international media and business development, said in the statement.

The league did not respond to questions on Thursday about how it assessed DAZN's streaming capabilities before the deal was finalized, or whether there are any plans to offer games via other services to ensure audiences can access them. In an e-mail, the NFL said it continues to work closely with DAZN.

"They are, rightly, putting pressure on us to improve," Mr. Rice said of the league. "But we've got a strong relationship with the NFL."

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