YouTube TV “Back To Normal” After Outage During NBA Playoff Game

YouTube TV, which has grown into one of the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S., said early Thursday it was “back to normal” after an outage interrupted the final minutes of an NBA playoff game.

The outage occurred during TNT’s broadcast of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, which Miami won, 123-116. Instead of the game, many frustrated viewers on Twitter reported seeing a commercial for The Little Mermaid play repeatedly.

In the last of a series of tweets Wednesday night into early Thursday, YouTube said it was “back to normal so you should be able to enjoy your fav content without any issues now – thank you so much for understanding.” It had previously noted that other networks were affected by the issue, but the tune-in for the Heat-Celtics series made the glitch more conspicuous.

YouTube TV said last year it has passed 5 million subscribers in the U.S. Since its launch in 2017, it has grown at a time when cable and satellite operators have shed millions of cord-cutting subscribers. The company phased in a significant price hike earlier this year, saying the higher price point would offset expenses for programming and new tech offerings like “multiview,” which enables viewers to see multiple screens at once. The feature will come into play this fall when NFL Sunday Ticket moves to YouTube.

Shortly before the outage, YouTube welcomed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to its Brandcast event in New York. The commissioner emphasized the deepening ties between the league and the tech giant. Sports fans on Twitter made “YouTube TV” a trending topic even after the problem had been fixed because they were unnerved about the potential fallout for NFL Sunday Ticket. Over nearly three decades, the premium package has been available as an option for customers of satellite operator DirecTV. Even though the league has quieted doubters of streaming with Amazon’s largely glitch-free debut season of Thursday Night Football, there is a large pocket of nervous skeptics.