Broadcaster STV faced criticism tonight after online viewers reported problems trying to watch the head-to-head debate on Scottish independence.
While television viewers in Scotland could watch the clash between the country's First Minister Alex Salmond and former Chancellor Alistair Darling, a surge in demand online across the rest of the UK caused STV's livestream to crash.
On Twitter, STV said: "For those having problems with the STV Player at the moment we are aware of this and are working hard to fix it."
Later it added: "We're still working on fixing the live stream. The debate will be available online in full a few hours after the programme has finished."
A number of viewers expressed their frustration on Twitter.
Labour MP Diane Abbott wrote: "Finally watching #indyref debate after struggling for 40 minutes with dead STV Iplayer."
Broadcaster Andrew Neil added: "Trying to watch Salmond v Darling on STV iPlayer. But system seem overwhelmed. Any thoughts?"
Claire Stewart tweeted: "An independent Scotland needs better equipped public broadcasters. #stvcrash #ScotDecides."
Labour MP Tom Watson said: "It may not be of interest to many but you would have thought a debate on the future of the union would be broadcast UK wide."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article