How Rupert Murdoch Changed Sports Media Forever
YouTube TV subscribers missed the conclusion of the Miami Heat’s 123-116 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night.
The Heat had come back from an early deficit and were fending off the Celtics late in the fourth quarter when viewers began experiencing issues with the TNT broadcast on the cable streaming service, according to multiple reports.
YouTube’s Twitter account first acknowledged the issue at 10:43 p.m. ET and later said the issue may have been due to watching content on multiple channels via YouTube TV. Some viewers reported seeing an error message, while others kept seeing one commercial over and over. At 4:27 a.m. ET Thursday, YouTube said the issue had finally been resolved.
Until now, sports fans worried about streaming connections have been able to avoid YouTube TV, but that’s set to change soon: The service will be the new exclusive home of NFL Sunday Ticket this fall in a deal that will provide the Google-owned platform with its biggest sports broadcast test to date.
Livestreaming sports will continue to present issues for at least some fans for the foreseeable future, but that won’t stop leagues from using tech companies to generate more revenue.
Amazon settled into a comfortable rhythm by the end of last NFL season in its first year exclusively streaming “Thursday Night Football” for a price of $1 billion annually.
