YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket streams are failing today

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NFL Logo superimposed on YouTube TV logos.
Image: The Verge
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YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket streams have been plagued with buffering and pixelation, making afternoon games today unwatchable, according to many, many posts. The @TeamYouTube account acknowledged the issue at 1:53PM ET. The team wrote that they’re aware YouTube is having issues and they are working to fix them, but acknowledged that “YouTube TV or NFL Sunday Ticket may also be impacted.”

Now that YouTube is the only place to watch NFL Sunday Ticket, that leaves viewers across the country with no options to watch games apart from any available local broadcasts. People have taken to X to complain that streams are freezing up or lagging, or that it’s just like watching illegal streams. And plenty of them point out the money factor. NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube isn’t particularly cheap, after all, ranging from $249 to as much as $489, depending on package and YouTube TV subscriber status.

There are two groups you generally don’t want to anger with bad internet: gamers and sports fans. The complaints range from somewhat polite and forlorn:

To profane:

To requests for refunds or threats to cancel.