The streaming era has disrupted sports watching, with one of the most notable changes for fans being the constant keeping up of which service has the rights to which games. The NFL will air games on 10 different channels/streaming services this season, while the NBA is set to undergo its shakeup with its new media rights deals that start with the 2025-26 season.
One other impact of streaming on the sports landscape that gets less attention, however, is the delays. Traditional antenna, cable and satellite broadcasts are often significantly ahead of streaming services like YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo and Sling. In an era of ever-present fantasy sports, gambling, group chats and push notifications, no one wants to have a big play spoiled.
The good news -- at least for YouTube TV users who watch on their television -- is a quick fix to boost your speed is just a small settings change away.
Once in the YouTube TV television app, head to the three dots in the lower-left corner. From there, select "Broadcast delay" and choose "decreased." That's it.
YouTube TV notes that the delay it adds to streams is designed to "minimize interruptions" to live streams, but in my time using this on Apple TV, Roku and Google TVs, I have yet to notice any issues. This includes games I've watched over my home internet service (T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet) or ones viewed on an office Verizon connection.
The service does not offer a similar option for its mobile apps or for streaming in browsers.
YouTube TV on televisions has an easy option for speeding up telecasts.
It is worth noting that adjusting this setting won't get you to true real-time feeds, but it will get you closer to the action. Watching some international pre-Olympics basketball, I saw the TV stream running about 8 seconds ahead of the YouTube TV app on my iPad that I was running at the same time over the same Wi-Fi at home. Watching early Olympic soccer using the office's Verizon connection had the TV running around 4 to 5 seconds faster than a similar stream on my MacBook Pro's Chrome browser.
There were no buffering or image issues with either feed, though if you do find yourself hitting some problems, going back into the settings and reversing the change should clear that up (even if it puts you a bit further behind what's happening).
With the Olympics starting this week and the NFL season right around the corner, this small tweak could make a big difference for those watching at home.