today's video is a warning for some people this could be the biggest downside to cutting the cord
15 seconds 30 seconds up to a minute live tv streaming delay results of testing you'll
only see here next this is an issue live tv streaming providers don't want to talk about but
we are going to talk about it today i've gotten a lot of questions recently from viewers asking
why streaming services like youtube tv are behind cable satellite and over-the-air broadcast tv
with an antenna in today's video what you need to know about the live tv streaming delay
number one are all live tv streaming services delayed the short answer is yes you could be
streaming with any of the major live tv services and there will be a delay at least a slight one
youtube tv actually displays live latency under stats for nerds the delay is typically around
30 seconds for my testing and that's what i found to be the average across various services
though i do have a reason to question this number and the accuracy of the stats i'm going to explain
why a little bit later on when i reached out to youtube tv about the delay here's the response
there can be a slight delay between youtube tv and live programs due to several factors
and the nature of online streaming itself but we're continuously working to minimize this
and bring you the best viewing experience now let me know what you think but i'm not so sure
i'd call a 30 second delay slight especially since cable satellite and even over the air
they have delays too and in those cases the delay actually is slight we're talking as few as
a couple seconds if you're watching over the air with an antenna that's going to be the experience
closest to the live event but cable and satellite they're right behind over the air perhaps another
second or two delay so you may be wondering what's the big deal with a 30 second delay and it may not
be a deal breaker for you but you should at least know what you're getting yourself into here's an
example let's say you live in an apartment your neighbors are watching the new year's eve ball
drop with an antenna but you're streaming it right at midnight you hear your neighbors yell happy new
year but since you're streaming it the countdown clock still says there are maybe 25 or 30 seconds
until the new year that is just one example and the live tv delay can also affect people
who are glued to their phone and get notifications plus people who follow twitter or reddit for live
events and if you're interested in getting involved in online sports betting i could
also see this being a problem there too moving on to number two which streaming service has
the worst delay now that we've established all live services have at least some sort of a delay
are any better than others the answer is obviously yes but it's hard to make generalizations based on
my testing as i showed you earlier youtube tv provides this live latency feature typically
it is about 30 seconds but i've been wondering is that even accurate so i hopped on the phone
with an xfinity subscriber to determine the difference between cable and streaming
while watching a news network cnn the difference was about 18 seconds according to my test but
look here youtube tv's live latency feature said about 32 seconds i conducted the same type of test
a few days ago for espn's monday night football and youtube tv was only about 10 seconds behind
that surprised me especially when you consider what i discovered the previous week
during the nfl kickoff game and first i again got on the phone with an xfinity subscriber
to determine the difference between cable and the yahoo sports app in this case 12 seconds
remember that because we'll be adding 12 seconds to the results i'm about to show you starting with
youtube tv the yahoo sports app on my phone was 9 seconds ahead so add 9 and 12 you get a delay
of 21 seconds i repeated this test with sling tv and it was 15 seconds behind the yahoo sports app
so when you add 12 seconds to that 27 seconds and this is the type of delay that i've really come to
expect from streaming more results now and hulu live was further behind on this day 24 seconds
behind yahoo sports which was 12 seconds behind cable so 36 seconds added together the biggest
surprise came when i tested out peacock it was a total of 50 seconds behind yahoo sports app
so the delay between peacock and cable tv was over a minute long you can also have a different delay
on different devices even from the same service look here this is youtube tv the game clock on my
phone says 903 but when i show you the tv set it's 908 five seconds behind i've got another
example for you youtube tv hulu live and sling tv all on my computer this is hulu live and it has
less of a delay this time we're back on that nfl kickoff game you can see the extra point attempt
meanwhile youtube tv and sling tv are still not back from the commercial break in the end sling
tv did run slightly ahead of youtube tv for this test you get the idea the numbers they are so
all over the place that i really just come to expect a delay of about 30 seconds and that's okay
with me let me know your experience down below in the comments number three how can i shorten
the live tv streaming delay that response from youtube tv i showed it to you earlier
it said that the nature of streaming is one of the factors with the live tv delay so there's
really no way to eliminate this delay altogether but if you do feel the delay is longer than normal
you could contact customer support and they may have you run a speed test just to rule that
out i went to speedup.me and speedtest.net to check my internet speed and as you can see well
over 300 megabits per second download speeds more than likely it's not your internet speed
so the best thing i can do is recommend that you take advantage of the free trials test out all the
services and you can see if you see a pattern of one that has a lesser live tv delay and of
course there's the obvious while streaming tv you could avoid looking at your phone notifications
stay off twitter and reddit and tell people who call and text you about your 30 second delay so
they won't spoil the outcome of your favorite games live events and shows see you next time