YouTube TV Offers Subscribers A Free Week After World Cup Outage

When you’re watching a crucial sports live online or on TV, the last thing you want is for the screen to go blank for no reason—But that’s precisely what happened, as the screen went blank for users using YouTube TV to watch the live stream of the semi-final match between England and Croatia.

Keen to make up for the outage, YouTube has decided to offer subscribers at least a week’s worth of free service. It also said that at least some of those who complained directly to customer service were told they would receive a month’s worth of credit. The One week of free YouTube TV amounts to $10, under the current $40-per-month pricing for new customers. Customers who signed up before March 13, 2018, on the original $35 monthly plan are grandfathered in on that price.

YouTube TV earned a “good” rating in April 2017 review; It offers “several compelling features” like an unlimited cloud DVR but noted it was missing several major cable channels at launch, including Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT. YouTube added those three channels, and a few others, to its TV lineup this February, but hiked the price of the service from $35 to $40 a month for new members.

“We’re really sorry for the recent YouTube TV outage during the FIFA World Cup Semifinal,” YouTube said in an email to subscribers. A copy of the email was obtained by Droid-Life, which shared a screenshot of the message in full.“To help make this right, we’d like to give you a week of free service. The email added.

Additionally, YouTube says that any recordings that were in-progress at the time of the outage should be available to view in full. This includes recordings of the full game, so if you’ve somehow managed to avoid spoilers for the match (which seems nearly impossible), you can at least watch it back in its entirety now.

YouTube ends the email by saying it will alert users again when the credit has been applied to their accounts, so keep an eye out for an additional email.