YouTube TV issued an apology for an outage that prevented users from watching one of the most important matches of the 2018 World Cup, alongside an offering of a free week of service.
It remains to be seen whether subscribers to Google's streaming television service will be placated by the apology and offering. However, one thing is for sure, and that is the fact that traditional methods of watching content are still much better in terms of reliability.
YouTube TV World Cup 2018 Outage
YouTube TV suffered an outage in one of the worst times possible for soccer fans. It happened on July 11, in the middle of the semifinal match between England and Croatia.
Google's YouTube team immediately started working to fix the issue, and YouTube TV was back up and running in a matter of hours. However, by that time, the England vs. Croatia game was already over.
The recording of the crucial semifinal World Cup match should already be available in the Library tab of the service, but of course, watching the game live is an entirely different experience. The outage was an even worse thing for YouTube TV subscribers who specifically signed up to watch the 2018 World Cup.
This is not the first time that YouTube TV went down during a major sporting event, as it also suffered an outage in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in May.
Free YouTube TV For Affected Users
YouTube TV sent emails to affected users, apologizing for the outage.
"We're really sorry for the recent YouTube TV outage during the FIFA World Cup Semifinal. We love our TV as much as you do, and our goal is to make sure that you can access your favorite TV - whenever and however you want," the email said.
In addition to the apology, YouTube TV said that it will be giving subscribers a free week of service. As of this point, users will not need to do anything aside from wait for another email that will soon be sent to confirm that their accounts have been credited.
YouTube TV For $40 Per Month
The YouTube TV subscription price is currently at $40 per month, so the promised free week of service should appear as a discount of $8 to $10 from users' monthly bill.
Google launched YouTube TV in March last year with a price of $35 per month, as it looked to take on streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. However, earlier this year, more YouTube TV channels were added, prompting the service to increase its monthly fee to $40.
