When YouTube TV wrested the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV in Dec. 2022, many fans wondered how the package would look on its new home.
On Sunday, the answer was “not good.” Week 8 of the NFL season was plagued by outages—so many that YouTube's support team felt compelled to put a statement on social media. The platform drew widespread criticism as fans complained of broadcasts plagued by buffering.
YouTube's global head of media and sports partnerships, Lori Conkling, insisted Thursday at the SBJ Media Innovators Conference in New York that the issue was now fixed.
“It’s completely mitigated,” Conkling said of YouTube TV’s technical issues. “People can have confidence in this Sunday, but it is top of mind for us that we are responsible for delivering the exceptional experience that we have promised to our viewers. So we take that very seriously, and we have done everything possible to ensure it does not happen again.”
With games growing in importance as the end of the season nears, YouTube TV's ability to hold up come time for the playoff chase will be a storyline to watch as the platform wraps up its first season distributing Sunday Ticket.
