YouTube TV Service Restored After Outage During World Cup Game

UPDATE with service restored. Even YouTube admits the timing was horrible that its YouTube TV service crashed as England and Croatia clash in the 2018 FIFA World Cup semifinals.

Just when fans were starting to show red cards and roll around on the turf in agony, the service came back on line, with apologies for the interruption. Here is the company’s latest tweet:

And we're back! Enjoy the rest of #ENGCRO by going to https://t.co/DYqXd9XXAr.

We are so sorry about the service interruption and we understand your frustration. If you continue to experience issues let @TeamYouTube know.

— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) July 11, 2018

Earlier, the “skinny bundle” service tweeted to subscribers, which number in the 750,000 range in 99 U.S. markets and who pay $40 a month, after their feed went out during the intense game today.

Hey everyone — sincere apologies for streaming issues with YouTube TV. The timing is horrible but we're working to be up and running again ASAP!

— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) July 11, 2018

The Google-owned service went down in the middle of the second half in Moscow. The winner of the match goes to Sunday’s World Cup final against France.

The YouTube TV service features access to Fox Sports, which has rights to the World Cup. It has made live sports a cornerstone of its offering, shelling out significant dollars for top-tier marketing partnerships with major sports leagues. For many pitches of last fall’s World Series and many jump shots during last spring’s NBA playoffs, the red YouTube TV logo was prominently featured.

Watch on Deadline

Today’s match was not the first time or the first virtual service to report outages amid high-trafficked events. With cord-shaving becoming more and more common, popular broadcasts send digital numbers soaring, sometimes overwhelming the capabilities of the internet-delivered services. HBO Now (the stand-alone service) and HBO Go (the authenticated service for pay-TV subscribers) reported outages in 2016 and 2017 during broadcasts of Game of Thrones and Sling TV went dark for a portion of its subscriber base during the Final Four in April.

Phillip Swann, publisher of TVAnswerMan.com, is a vocal critic of skinny bundles given their history of service interruptions. He didn’t miss today’s opportunity to weigh in, offering a succinct but jaundiced tweet in reply to YouTube TV’s mea culpa: “The joys of live streaming.”