YouTube TV dances around 'Sunday Ticket' live delay concerns

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YouTube TV dances around 'NFL Sunday Ticket' live delay concerns

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 4/13/23

YouTube TV somewhat responded to legitimate concerns regarding live-delay issues customers could encounter while using the service to enjoy the "NFL Sunday Ticket" out-of-market package this coming season.

"The YouTube TV team is working on building a high-quality 'Sunday Ticket' experience," a YouTube TV spokesperson told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk via email. "Overall, YouTube TV is built on the infrastructure that powers YouTube and reliably serves billions of playback every day. Users can check their Live Latency in 'Stats For Nerds' directly in the YouTube TV app. We’re always working to find the right tradeoff between latency, buffering and quality."

On Wednesday, both Kevin Harrish of Awful Announcing and Florio mentioned how inevitable latency issues will affect "NFL Sunday Ticket" viewers, particularly those who aren't used to utilizing streaming services. In short, the streamed broadcast of a game could be anywhere from 50 to roughly 75 seconds behind the airing of that contest on a network such as CBS or Fox.

On the surface, this doesn't sound like all that big of a deal. Casual fans can merely avoid social media apps and turn notifications off their phones to avoid having big plays, such as touchdowns, "spoiled" before those moments air on YouTube. However, Harrish pointed out that any significant delay could prevent some from taking part in live betting advertised by NFL gambling partners such as DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars Entertainment.

YouTube TV was 54 seconds behind real-time for the last Super Bowl

not sure the delay for a regular Sunday afternoon during next NFL season with Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV but likely more than it was with DirecTV (with dish, latency of ~ 24-30 seconds) pic.twitter.com/gCGONS21Sn
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) April 11, 2023

Florio noted on Tuesday that "NFL Sunday Ticket" could cost as much as $389, with the RedZone channel included, for non-subscribers who purchase the package through YouTube Primetime channels by June 6. Fans spending that much money who also like to place in-game wagers likely won't happily tolerate YouTube delays of up to 54 seconds.

"If eliminating latency impacts quality, then consumers may have to deal with a certain amount of latency," Florio wrote. "And if buffering becomes an issue, that will be a much bigger deal than latency."

Just last season, DirecTV reimbursed "NFL Sunday Ticket" customers who dealt with difficulties while attempting to stream games. Such individuals won't be any kinder to YouTube if that outlet's service leaves much to be desired come September.

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