Super Bowl LIX: Tubi Leads All Streaming Platforms in Least Lag Time, According to Phenix Report

Meanwhile, Comcast reports that Xfinity's Enhanced 4k feed was the fastest feed for any pay-TV and streaming provider at only 14 seconds behind the live action

According to a new research report from Phenix, Tubi delivered the least lag time between the live action on the field Sunday in New Orleans during Super Bowl LIX and what streaming viewers actually saw on their screen, with latency averaging just 26 seconds. That’s down from the best lag time for last year’s Super Bowl LVIII, which was 42.73 seconds on Paramount+.

Phenix, which annually tracks streaming performance for the Big Game, reports that NFL+ mobile app finished second with a 51-second lag behind real time, followed by Hulu Live TV (62), DIRECTV Stream (62), Sling (64), YouTubeTV (67), and Fubo (78):

For its sixth annual report, Phenix collected 62 data points benchmarking latency across seven common streaming platforms on a variety of devices and operating systems. For a comprehensive view of latency from the field of play to the average viewer, latency of over-the-air broadcast (OTA), cable, and satellite was benchmarked against individuals inside Caesars Superdome during Super Bowl LIX. Phenix then measured the delay from these benchmarked signals to the seven platforms across geographies within the U.S. Combining the measurements provides a more accurate picture of the average latency behind the action on the field and the drift for each streaming service.

In addition, Phenix measured audience drift, comparing ranges of lag for viewers on the same platform (data points spanned browser-based and app-based experiences):

“When we shared the results of our Super Bowl latency study in 2023,” says Phenix CMO Jed Corenthal, who was formerly director of marketing for the NFL, “I remember thinking there was no excuse for delays and buffering, which honestly destroyed the viewing experience for fans during one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Unfortunately, 728 days later, I’m still saying the exact same thing. Fans are spending more than ever on way more services than they need to keep up with exclusivity rights, and yet the experience on each continues to be subpar. My appeal to streaming platforms in 2025 is to please make the experience better for fans. I do believe this year is the tipping point, and many fans will cut the streaming cord if we don’t see progress.”

Says Phenix CEO Roy Reichbach, “For the last six years, our Super Bowl latency study has uncovered one of the major issues holding back streaming from being the beacon we all expected when we cut the cord. More than just being annoying for fans, the business implications around these latency issues are enormous. As a live event buffers or is more than one minute behind what is actually happening on the field, things like real-time betting, second-screen viewing, peer interactions, and live fan engagements cannot happen. These features are the future of sports viewing and sports culture. The playing field (pun intended) is uneven, and, each season we deny fans what they’re looking for, frustration grows, and networks miss out on massive opportunities. Thankfully, the technology exists to remove this barrier. We just have to stop being afraid to use it.”

UPDATE 2/11/25: Comcast reports that Xfinity’s Enhanced 4k feed was the fastest feed for any pay-TV and streaming provider – only 14 seconds behind the live action and just 2.5 seconds behind FOX’s OTA feed. The company’s analysis also showed the Enhanced 4K feed was 3 seconds ahead of Tubi’s 4K feed and 14 seconds faster than the fastest vMVPD. Comcast’s numbers show the slowest vMVPD coming in more than 40 seconds behind its Enhanced 4K feed (nearly a minute behind live).