# Long TV delay on sporting event? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-tv-delay-on-sporting-event/801571 "2017-11-14T01:03:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-tv-delay-on-sporting-event/801571/1 "2017-11-14T01:03:34Z")
I am watching my local NHL team the Hurricanes using Sling TV and a chromecast. the broadcast says 4 minutes to go in period 1. But the reality is the period is over as shown on various websites and twitter. My home connection is ATT fiber at 300 mb. What is causing such a big delay in getting the game to me? Is the signal bouncing around due to sling ? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-tv-delay-on-sporting-event/801571/2 "2017-11-14T17:54:47Z")
Every digital “transaction” between devices/systems has its own coding and decoding to deal with. In olden days of analog signals, everything went through pretty much as is and traveled at more or less the speed of light. Now you have different systems, buffering and lots of other technical stuff I’m not sure of. The difference in the signal between my cable box in the family room and the Roku device in the back bedroom is at least a minute, and the difference between my cable box and an OTA signal is always a few seconds and often longer. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-tv-delay-on-sporting-event/801571/3 "2017-11-14T18:00:05Z")
A few seconds between cable box and OTA is understandable since the cable providers have to decode, re-encode and rebroadcast the source signal. 4 minutes is insane. I’d have to assume Sling is doing some kind of manually triggered ad replacement or something during that time. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-tv-delay-on-sporting-event/801571/4 "2017-11-14T18:14:30Z")
Folks get really really pissed when their feed stops & starts because there’s nothing in the local buffer to show. Most folks have no idea how close to real time their “live” show is. And for pre-recorded content there is no meaningful concept of real time anyhow. So the various layers in the chain have an definite incentive to buffer enough data that no matter how screwed up things get upstream, they won’t run dry of stuff to send downstream. And they have almost no incentive, other than their own storage needs, to worry about minimizing lag due to large buffering. Lather rinse repeat for several layers of middlemen and coding/decoding cycles and you’re a couple hundred seconds behind live. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-tv-delay-on-sporting-event/801571/5 "2017-11-14T18:17:32Z")
I found this: > [@](#): > > One of the biggest drawbacks with streaming TV, especially for sports, is the lag that occurs between the cable broadcast and the live stream. A 30-second delay might be okay if you’re watching TV in a vacuum, but it’s disruptive if you’re hearing cheers from the neighboring apartment after a big play, or looking at reactions on Twitter before anything’s even happened on your TV. > > “We are acutely in touch with those users, and that is the number-one complaint, by far,” said Fox Sports senior vice president Clark Pierce, who is in charge of Fox Sports Go apps. “I think that’s a big, big gap between the television experience and the streaming experience.” > > The main reason for latency is that the live stream gets chopped up onto chunks–usually of around 10 seconds each–to be delivered over the internet. A streaming player such as Apple TV might require a few of those chunks to be lined up before it starts playing the video, launching viewers into a point that’s well behind the live broadcast. > **[Streaming TV quality sucks compared to broadcast. Here’s how the industry...](https://www.techhive.com/article/582819/streaming-tv-quality-sucks-heres-how-the-industry-intends-to-make-it-better.html)** > > Streaming TV quality vs. broadcast and cable: How the industry's tackling frame rate, latency, and surround sound That doesn’t necessarily address a 4 minute lag, but that might have something to do with using Sling in conjunction with Chromecast.