Super Bowl 2025 Streaming Alert: How to Prepare For Buffering & Game Delays

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – Follow me on X.

TV Answer Man, I am planning to stream the Super Bowl on Tubi or my Fubo sub but I am a little concerned about buffering. Any insights and advice for us? – John, Evanston, Illinois.

John, the Kansas City Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles in the 59th Super Bowl this Sunday (February 9, 2025) at the Superdome in New Orleans at 6:30 p.m. ET. With Fox, which is broadcasting the game, offering a free 4K feed on its free online service, Tubi, many fans will likely go streaming this year rather than watch it on cable or satellite. (The game will also be available online on live streaming services such as YouTube TV and Fubo as well as the Fox Sports app.)

However, there are two things you should know before you decide to stream the game.

1. The 2024 Super Bowl stream experienced widespread glitches and picture freezing.

The TV Answer Man was one of the many who experienced these issues on DIRECTV Stream. At several points before and during the game, I had to switch to Paramount Plus to avoid missing the action although DIRECTV Stream was offering the game in 4K while PP was not. But DIRECTV Stream subscribers were not the only ones having issues with the Super Bowl stream. Numerous fans of nearly every (if not every) streaming service (including Paramount Plus) were complaining at various times during the game. Downdetector.com, the site which tracks online outages, reported that scores of thousands of people were posting concerns about their Super Bowl stream during the game.

CBS broadcast the Super Bowl last year while Fox has the game this year. But all networks have experienced streaming issues with high-profile events such as the Super Bowl. While arguably more convenient than traditional cable and satellite services, live streaming is still susceptible to buffering and other issues when servers are taxed by a large viewership.

Streaming Solutions?
The home viewer can take some preventing steps to ensure a better stream, but if the problem is on the streamer’s side, there really isn’t much you can do. The most important steps I would recommend is to remove any users on your WiFi network besides the Super Bowl stream. This should strengthen your signal. In addition, you might want to connect your Internet directly to the TV or streaming device, bypassing the WiFi network. Again, this can improve the signal strength.

2. The game on live streaming services was delayed by as much as 86 seconds
.
Many viewers who streamed the 2024 Super Bowl game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers noticed that the real time action was far ahead of the streams on live streaming services such as YouTube TV, FuboTV and Hulu Live. Phenix, a company which sells technology designed to shorten streaming delays, noticed the same thing. Phenix’s Sunday survey of Super Bowl streamers found that:

Fubo’s stream was 86.75 seconds behind the real time action;
Hulu Live’s was 70.16 second behind;
ViX was 63,46 seconds behind;
NFL Plus was 61.45 seconds behind;
DIRECTV Stream was 60.62 seconds behind;
YouTube TV was 55.54 seconds behind;
Paramount Plus was 42.73 seconds behind.

This means that, according to Phenix, Fubo had the worst Super Bowl streaming delay for two straight years. Here were the 2023 results:

FuboTV’s stream was 76.73 seconds behind the real time action;
Hulu Live was 69.8 seconds behind;
NFL Plus was 60.70 seconds behind;
DIRECTV Stream was 57.13 seconds behind;
And YouTube TV was 54.14 seconds behind.

Live streaming delays have become almost an accepted element these days. Companies need more time to transmit a live stream due to greater technical complexity and other issues.

The good news is that the Fox Sports app in 2023 was able to stream the game with a smaller delay in part because it received the signal directly from the network’s command center. That bodes well for the Fox Sports stream this year. However, the live streaming services carry the local affiliate signal which takes longer to process.

Streaming Delay Solution
To combat this problem, YouTube TV has added a feature to shorten delays. See our article on this. If you’re choosing a live streamer based on delays, YouTube TV might be your answer.

Bottom line: If you watch the Super Bowl this year via streaming, you need to be prepared in case your picture goes awry, particularly if you’re hosting a viewer party. If you have cable or satellite, have the remote ready just in case.

Have a question about a favorite show, streaming service or new TV product? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.

The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered  television for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.