The streaming era has revolutionized sports viewing, and one of the most noticeable changes for fans is having to keep track of which service owns the rights to which games. The NFL is set to air games on 10 different channels/streaming services this season, and the NBA is set to shake things up with new media rights deals starting with the 2025-26 season.
But another impact of streaming on the sports world that gets less attention is latency. Traditional antenna, cable and satellite broadcasts are often way ahead of streaming services like YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo and Sling. In an age of fantasy sports, gambling, group chats and ever-present push notifications, no one wants to be spoiled for important plays.
The good news, at least for YouTube TV users watching on their TVs, is that you can easily increase your speed with just a few tweaks to your settings.
Once you’re in the YouTube TV app, go to the three dots in the bottom-left corner. From there, select “Broadcast Delay” and then “Shorten.” And you’re done!
YouTube TV says the delay it adds to streaming is designed to “minimize interruptions” to live streams, but I haven’t encountered any issues yet while using it on Apple TV, Roku, and Google TV. This includes games watched over my home internet service (T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet) as well as my Verizon connection at the office.
The service doesn’t offer a similar option for streaming on its mobile app or browser.
YouTube TV on your TV has a simple option to speed up live TV.
Eli Blumenthal/CNET
Adjusting this setting won’t give you a true real-time feed, but it can get you closer to the action. When I was watching pre-Olympic international basketball, I saw the TV stream run about 8 seconds faster than the YouTube TV app on my iPad, which I was running at the same time over the same Wi-Fi at home. When I watched early Olympic soccer using my office’s Verizon connection, the TV ran about 4 to 5 seconds faster than a similar stream on the Chrome browser on my MacBook Pro.
We didn’t have any buffering or image issues with either feed, but if you do experience issues, going back into the settings and undoing the changes should fix the issue (albeit with a slightly slower delay than you’ll experience in real life).
With the Olympics starting this week and the NFL season just around the corner, this small tweak could make a big difference for those watching at home.