YouTube's TV streaming service experienced a massive outage during the World Cup semifinals - and customers were not happy
- YouTube TV, the streaming giant's $35-a-month TV streaming service, experienced an outage on Wednesday.
- The outage happened during the worst possible time for World Cup fans: during the crucial semifinals game between England and Croatia.
This is not a good look for YouTube TV.
YouTube TV, the streaming giant's paid over-the-top subscription service that's meant to replace traditional cable, experienced a massive outage at the worst possible time for many customers: during the crucial World Cup semifinals match-up between England and Croatia.
YouTube TV's Twitter account confirmed the outage on Wednesday afternoon.
YouTube says it is working on it. But obviously, customers of the service were not happy.
Here's what GV general partner M.G. Siegler had to say in response to the outage:
Several people threatened to cancel YouTube TV as a result of the poorly timed outage.
Whether or not these Twitter users are actual YouTube TV customers is unclear. But what is clear is that for a one-year-old TV streaming service like YouTube TV, it's not a good look to have an outage during the World Cup, which is not only a big sporting event, but a major cultural event where non-sports fans will partake in viewing.
More importantly, outages like these hurt consumer confidence in cord-cutting services like YouTube TV - since traditional cable doesn't have the reputation of buckling under pressure when millions of people try to tune in at once. It will be interesting to see if and how YouTube TV responds to this situation and make nice with any unhappy customers affected by the outage. Perhaps a service discount is all it takes, but people would probably just prefer to actually watch the game.
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