YouTube wants to make it up to disgruntled soccer fans.
Fans were outraged on Wednesday when YouTube’s live TV service, YouTube TV, was hit with a sudden outage during the World Cup semifinal match between England and Croatia.
Now, YouTube is offering an olive branch in the form of a credit for one week of free service.
Fans were outraged on Wednesday when YouTube’s live TV service, YouTube TV, was hit with a sudden outage during the World Cup semifinal match between England and Croatia
‘We’re really sorry for the recent YouTube TV outage during the FIFA World Cup Semifinal,’ YouTube said in an email to subscribers, according to Variety.
‘To help make this right, we’d like to give you a week of free service,’ they added.
It also informed users that they should expect to receive an email confirming their account has been credited.
YouTube TV charges new customers $40 a month for the service, while people who subscribed prior to March 13, 2018 pay a rate of $35 per month.
This amounts to a discount of $10 for new subscribers.
Additionally, YouTube said that DVR’d recordings of the full match can be accessed on the app’s library.
The outage lasted for about an hour on Wednesday, before service was restored at approximately 12:58 p.m. PT.
‘We are so sorry about the service interruption and we understand your frustration. If you continue to experience issues let @TeamYouTube know,’ YouTube said in the tweet.
Earlier in the day YouTube TV had run an ad saying ‘The games are heating up. Don’t miss a minute of the 2018 World Cup™ and watch LIVE on FOX with @YouTubeTV.’
In May, the service went down during Game 2 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.
Wednesday’s service interruption also came in the middle of men’s quarterfinal matches at Wimbledon, which is broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN.
YouTube TV acknowledged the technical problems, saying in a post at noon Pacific, midway through the match, ‘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!’
WHAT CAN YOU WATCH ON YOUTUBE TV FOR $40 A MONTH?
Google is raising the price of its YouTube TV streaming service as of March 13.
The monthly fee will raise to $40 for new customers, though existing customers will continue to pay $35, as before.
It’s also added a number of new channels.
At the base price, customers will have access to:
ABC
CBS
Fox
NBC
AMC
BBC America
BBC World News
Bravo
Big Ten Network
Cartoon Network
CNBC
NBC Sports
CBS Sports Network
CNN
Comet
The CW
Disney Channel
Disney XD
Disney Junior
SEC ESPN Network
E!
ESPN
ESPN 2
ESPN U
ESPN News
Fox Business
Fox News
Fox Sports
Freeform
FS1
FS2
FX
FXM
FXX
NBC Golf
HLN
IFC
MSNBC
National Geographic
Nat Geo Wild
NBC Sports Network
Newsy
Olympic Channel
Pop
Smithsonian Channel
Sundance TV
Syfy
TBS
Telemundo
Tennis Channel
TNT
Turner Classic Movies
truTV
Universal Kids
Universo
USA
We TV
YES
YouTube Red
YouTube TV’s support team told users to go to the Fox Sports app and website to watch the World Cup match.
Rival sports streaming service fuboTV even used the outage as an opportunity to tout its own platform.
FuboTV issued a press release noting that its service has been ‘steady with zero outages during the World Cup,’ according to Deadline.
However, fuboTV did experience some outages earlier in the week during the first semifinal World Cup match.
Rival sports streaming service fuboTV even used the outage as an opportunity to tout its own platform. However, fuboTV did experience some outages earlier in the week
Users took to Twitter on Wednesday to express their frustration about the YouTube TV outage. YouTube is offering an olive branch in the form of a credit for one week of free service
YouTube TV has offered streaming for all 64 matches of the World Cup, as well as 300 hours of FIFA World Cup coverage, Deadline noted.
Google launched YouTube TV in April 2017, and it now offers a core lineup of over 50 traditional broadcast and cable networks.
The YouTube TV ‘skinny bundle’ was originally priced at $35, then YouTube raised the price to $40 per month for new subscribers this spring after adding Turner’s networks.
YouTube TV — pitched at younger, mobile-oriented consumers — is available across the U.S. in markets representing about 85% of the nation’s TV households.