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Super Bowl 2024: Paramount+ And YouTube TV Register Lowest Streaming Delays

John Finn Avatar
Super Bowl 2024 logo

With Super Bowl 2024 now over, it’s time to take a closer look at how the various streaming services dealt with the major event. When it comes to latency, it would appear that Paramount+ and YouTube TV offered the best experience by encountering the lowest streaming delay.

A Paramount+ subscription was the main way to stream this year’s Super Bowl. While any live TV streaming service that offers access to CBS could be used to watch the big game, Paramount+ provided a way to watch Super Bowl 2024 without the need for a live TV package, making it the cheapest and easiest option overall.

Based on the latest data from Phenix, Paramount+ also proved the best in terms of latency, registering a delay of 42.73 seconds on average. YouTube TV, which was showing the game via CBS, proved to be the best of the live TV services after registering an average lag time of 55.54 seconds.

According to the data, only Paramount+ and YouTube TV managed to keep the average delay below one minute. It would appear that Fubo proved the worst, on average, registering a delay of almost one and a half minutes (86.75 seconds).

Super Bowl Streaming Latency Phenix
Source: Phenix

With latency beginning to emerge as another selling point, some services have been looking at ways to improve this part of the streaming experience. YouTube TV, for example, recently lifted a major limitation on its broadcast delay feature, making it possible to lower the latency on a permanent basis. YouTube TV’s broadcast delay works by letting users decide whether to prioritize lower latency or buffering.

Considering the latest data appears to be in respect of YouTube TV’s default broadcast delay setting, it is possible subscribers who opted to decrease broadcast delay may have encountered even lower levels of latency during this year’s Super Bowl live event.

Interestingly, and in spite of attempts to improve the experience, all of the live TV streaming services showing the game registered a worse delay than last year. For example, YouTube TV’s 55.54-second delay in 2024 was worse than the 54.14 seconds reported for 2023.

At the other end of the spectrum, Fubo’s 86.75 seconds in 2024 was quite a jump from the 76.73-second average reported in 2023.

John Finn

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