Which streamer had the shortest Super Bowl LX delay?
Which streamer had the shortest Super Bowl LX delay?
New data reveals who was as close to live as possible during the Super Bowl broadcast, and which services saw major delays.
Super Bowl LX on NBC turned out to be a triumph for Seattle Seahawks fans on Sunday night, and an evening most New England Patriots followers would like to forget. While the official ratings for the Big Game have not yet been revealed, Stats Perform has assembled data on which streaming services had the longest delay between live action on the field and when fans saw that action on their screen — also known as latency.
Key Details:
- Walk proud: Peacock had the lowest latency of any streaming service carrying the Super Bowl.
- Too close to call: Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV tied for the lowest latency of live TV streamers.
- Huge variance: YouTube TV had an audience drift of 126 seconds.
The data from Stats Perform shows that audiences won’t put up with latency for long. Ninety-three percent of NFL fans who responded to Stats Perform say being as close to real time when watching a live game is important, with 45% saying it’s extremely important. More than three in four (76%) say they feel annoyed when their feed is behind real time. and 83% are likely to switch platforms to avoid a delay.
The data shows that Peacock had the shortest latency of any streaming service carrying Super Bowl LX. On average, Peacock lagged 48 seconds behind the live action at Levi’s Stadium — not a terribly impressive figure, to be sure, but better than any live TV streaming service.
Click chart to expand.
Among live TV services that carried the Big Game on NBC, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV performed the best. Each was 53 seconds behind live on average, which represents a big improvement over two years ago for the former of the two services. YouTube TV’s average latency in 2024’s Super Bowl was 55 seconds, so the streamer hasn’t improved its latency-fighting tools demonstrably since.
Some customers had wildly different experiences while streaming Super Bowl LX, particularly YouTube TV subscribers. Stats Perform measured an audience drift of 126 seconds on YouTube TV, by far the most of any streaming service. Drift measures the difference between customers who saw the least delay while watching on a given service against customers who saw the longest delay.
Click chart to expand.
Latency is a problem that continues to plague all streaming services. It’s clearly a big annoyance to fans, and continuing to shrink the delays fans experience between action on the field and when they see that action on their screen will help sports leagues feel even more at ease entrusting their broadcasts to streaming services in the future.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 60 channels for $82.99/month. This plan includes local channels 32 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs) in select markets. The base plan includes more than 100 live channels, including major broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as popular cable channels such as ESPN, CNN, FX, USA Network, and TNT. Local channels are included in most markets, making YouTube TV a full replacement for traditional cable for many viewers.