YouTube’s TV streaming service experienced a massive outage at the worst possible time — and customers were not happy

World Cup 2018 photos

YouTube TV, the streaming giant's $35-a-month TV streaming service, experienced an outage on Wednesday.
The outage happened lasted about an hour, but it happened at the worst possible time for World Cup fans: during the crucial semifinals game between England and Croatia.

This was not a good look for YouTube TV.

YouTube TV, the streaming giant's paid over-the-top subscription service that's meant to replace traditional cable, experienced a massive outage at the worst possible time for many customers: during the crucial World Cup semifinals match-up between England and Croatia.

YouTube TV's Twitter account confirmed the outage on Wednesday afternoon.

Hey everyone -- sincere apologies for streaming issues with YouTube TV. The timing is horrible but we're working to be up and running again ASAP!
— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) July 11, 2018

Roughly an hour later, YouTube TV reported its services were back up and operational.

And we're back! Enjoy the rest of #ENGCRO by going to https://t.co/DYqXd9XXAr.

We are so sorry about the service interruption and we understand your frustration. If you continue to experience issues let @TeamYouTube know.
— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) July 11, 2018

But obviously, customers of the service were not happy with the poorly timed outage.

GV general partner M.G. Siegler summed up how customers were feeling with just two words:

One. Job. https://t.co/c8GirjD1Ro
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) July 11, 2018

Several people threatened to cancel YouTube TV.

What a nightmare! How do i cancel this service?
— William Lopez-Cordero (@wcordelo) July 11, 2018

Yeah I agree. A service is only as good as it can stay up and running. No point in paying for a service that fails during a big game.
— 🐲Lon (@H_Sensa) July 11, 2018

Cancelling!
— sclau (@springaround) July 11, 2018

Whether or not these Twitter users are actual YouTube TV customers is unclear. But what is clear is that for a one-year-old TV streaming service like YouTube TV, it's not a good look to have an outage during the World Cup, which is not only a big sporting event, but a major cultural event where non-sports fans will partake in viewing.

More importantly, outages like these hurt consumer confidence in cord-cutting services like YouTube TV — since traditional cable doesn't have the reputation of buckling under pressure when millions of people try to use it at once. It will be interesting to see if and how YouTube TV responds to this situation and make nice with any unhappy customers affected by the outage. Perhaps a service discount is all it takes, but people would probably just prefer to actually watch their content without interruptions.

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