When the exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket switched from Directv to YouTube TV ahead of the 2023 season, there was reasonable concern about how a streaming service would hold up compared to a linear provider.
And through the first seven weeks of the season, YouTube TV had exceeded expectations. Streaming delays were minimized, the video quality had been great and fans enjoyed the multiview feature. But on Week 8, we saw that the service isn’t perfect, and that was bad news for NFL fans.
As the early window of games kicked off, fans on social media were experiencing issues with buffering and games simply not loading.
It's not just you: NFL fans have been reporting buffering with Sunday Ticket so far today.
No comment as of now from YouTube TV. pic.twitter.com/1QV7FsZN6v
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 29, 2023
@YouTubeTV please fix this before the @49ers play. #FTTB only reason why I have have Sunday ticket! pic.twitter.com/68Wwn9Vd3c
— Hunta3 (@hunta3) October 29, 2023
The issues persisted well into the second quarter of the early window, and YouTube eventually commented that its team was aware of the problems.
If you're experiencing buffering issues on YouTube our team is aware and working on a fix. YouTube TV or NFL Sunday Ticket may also be impacted. we'll follow-up here once this has been resolved.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 29, 2023
We’ll have to see what exactly caused the issues after seven weeks of smooth sailing, but NFL fans were understandably upset given the service’s high price tag. It should work as promised every time.