YouTube TV

YouTube TV now lets you reduce broadcast delay for live sports for longer

Ben Schoon | Jan 28 2024 - 5:52 pm PT

Live sports is one of the biggest reasons to use YouTube TV, and the service made it even better late last year with the introduction of an option to reduce the broadcast delay for a limited amount of time. Now, that option can be enabled permanently.

In YouTube TV’s playback settings, users can adjust the broadcast delay between the “default” setting and “decrease.” That second option first showed up in December 2023 and appears under the three dots overflow menu when streaming a channel live. However, at the time, that option only kicked in for 48 hours at a time. If you turned it on, two days later it would automatically switch back to default.

Now, YouTube TV lets you reduce the broadcast delay for longer, seemingly permanently.

The change was first spotted by CordCuttersNews earlier this week, and is also reflected on Google’s support documents.

There’s no word on why the change was made, or why it’s only been made now. Either way, though, it seems there’s really no limit here. We only tested the option briefly, but there’s no longer a message saying that is decreased “for 48 hours,” and the “Decreased” setting applies after closing and re-opening the app (on Android TV).

Importantly, this setting also applies to all channels, not just the one you set it for.

As before, though, the trade-off with changing the broadcast delay setting is that the new option may result in playback interruptions. By limiting the delay, there’s a stronger chance that internet speeds, interference, or any other number of hiccups could cause the stream to temporarily freeze or stop.

The setting is still listed in the app as an “Experiment.”

Google explains:

“Default” is best to minimize playback interruptions. “Decrease” is best to reduce live spoilers. Choose the “Decrease” option if you want low broadcast delay with minimal playback interruptions.

This also comes just in time for the Super Bowl, which will stream on YouTube TV (in 4K) on February 11 via CBS.