According to some impacted YouTube TV users, the issues initially seemed to be due to the end user’s own internet connection — things like pixelated video feeds and chronic buffering. However, the company acknowledged the buffering issue in its tweet as being the result of whatever is malfunctioning, noting that the problem may impact the regular YouTube platform, YouTube TV, and NFL Sunday Ticket. Reports about problems using YouTube have spiked at Downdetector.
Football fans can still stream the games via their local broadcast networks, but that assumes they own a digital TV antenna. Unlike those OTA broadcasts for local market games, YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket offering isn’t free — and, in fact, it is an extra expense that comes in at hundreds of dollars per year on top of the regular YouTube TV subscription. At the time of writing, YouTube TV lists the NFL Sunday Ticket subscription at $349 per year, and it requires the subscriber to pay for YouTube TV’s base $72.99 per month plan, as well.
