Now TV Sports - is there a time lag?

[Ant4]

Hi

I'm thinking of moving from Sky to BT.  Prior to being a Sky customer I used Now TV passes to watch Formula 1. And when I used that method (via the NowTV app on my smart TV) there was always a lag between live action and the broadcast action. So if I was also following F1 on social media or on the F1 app (Live Timing), they would be up to 90 seconds ahead of me. If there'd been a crash, for instance, I might read about it on Twitter and see a stopped car on Live Timing before I could see it on the screen.

Synchronising with the F1 Live Timing app got trickier after F1 took over the Live Timing app.  It became harder to pause the Live Timing app and then unpause it at exactly the right time.

When I became a Sky customer the broadcast action was more or less simultaneous to the real-time action.  No synchronisation was needed if I wanted to follow Live Timing at the same time. 

So - sorry for the long intro to my question but, is there a similar lag between BT's Now TV sports broadcast and the live action?  And if so, how do people cope with it?

[NigelB72 · Accepted solution]

If you watch via the Youview EPG, the channels are delivered via Multicast so they're as live as live can be so basically no noticeable delay and on a par with Sky Sports via satellite delivery.

[Ant4]

Fabulous. Thanks 🙂

[gomezz]

My experience of multicast TV is that it is about 22 seconds behind DAB / Freeview radio.  This is from listening to the TMS or TS2 cricket commentary while watching the action on BT Sport.

[stereohaven]

Yes there is a time lag, but not a massive one.

As someone who had both Sky Sports via satellite and BT TV for a short period, I can confirm that the channels delivered via multicast (1 to many), are 10 - 12 seconds behind the satellite versions when I tested them.

Not bad latency at all considering (as you have experienced), a normal NOW Sky Sports stream delivered by unicast (1 to 1), can be 60 - 90 seconds behind, but enough of a delay so that you could hear your neighbour celebrate a goal or chequered flag you are just about to see "live".

[gomezz]

Of course I never understand why people follow a match on social media and have notifications turned on while watching it knowing there is a time delay. As for my neighbours, the only time I hear what that they are up to is when mowing their lawn or on fireworks night.

[Ant4]

Thank you.  Not too bad.  I like the concept that I can unsubscribe during the off-season. In the end, unless Sky come back with a much better offer, BT would be cheaper for me. So it's a trade-off.