YouTube NFL outage: Should Google issue a refund or credit? | Digital trends

The good news is, I mean Google, YouTube and YouTube TV, we made it through the middle of the season without any major technical issues as the exclusive home of NFL Sunday Ticket. But on October 29, in the eighth week (of 17 weeks), problems arose.

It was clear something was wrong almost as early as Sunday’s 1 p.m. games. There were many buffering problems. The lag was a real thing. Resolution and bitrate dropped to unacceptable levels. And Google, in turn, pointed out these problems on social mediaAnd also on a help page. If you’re experiencing buffering issues on YouTube, our team is aware and working on a fix, Twitter said in a statement. YouTube TV or NFL Sunday Ticket may also be affected. Well, when this problem is solved, follow up here.

A day later, the statement (which did not include the last sentence) was removed from the help page. And it didn’t look like the @TeamYouTube Twitter account was actually followed. (Note to Google and YouTube: It’s probably time to be on Threads.) But a large number of disgruntled subscribers followed up on their own, asking if there was any kind of refund or credit for the disconnect. And to be clear, it wasn’t a complete certainty. Just the basics

Crediting subscribers for outages is not permitted. In 2018, YouTube TV issued a credit for the FIFA Men’s World Cup semi-final match cut, and subscribers received about $10 off their next bill.

This type of design is a bit more complicated this time. For the first time, the outage did not appear to be limited to NFL Sunday tickets, which require a premium subscription of several hundred dollars a year. Those who only subscribed to YouTube TV and received streamed games were also affected, and it wasn’t just one game that was unwatchable. (And everything seemed to be settled in the evening game.)

So what is this worth? An extra $10 or more off your next bill for YouTube TV subscribers? Or should NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers get credit for a full Sunday? Depending on how much you paid, it could range from about $17 to $29. Of course, no one who would go to great lengths to watch a game would turn down some free money. But you can understand that Google is in no rush to figure out who owes whom.

And it’s worth noting that Google doesn’t seem to actually be required to do anything. A quick trip through the NFL Sunday Ticket terms and conditions pretty much shows that you’re paying for the service, and that. There is no provision for power outage compensation. NFL Sunday Ticket subscription payments are non-refundable, in whole and/or in part. Once your payment method has been charged for a season, you cannot issue a refund for that season.

Google should at least apologize. Playback problems, unfortunately, happen sometimes. Even if the compensation is not correct, there is definitely an explanation. We’ve reached out to Google to see if there’s any word on what happened, and if any compensation is on the way.

Editors’ recommendations