The NFL app is (still) an insult to sports streaming

While a one-off glitch might be forgivable, the NFL app is routinely one of the worst experiences in sports streaming, with subpar video quality, lackluster features, and a history of reliability issues. Given that the NFL generates by far the most revenue of any U.S. sports league, surely it can do better than this embarrassment.

NFL app problems

Last weekend’s outage aside, the NFL app’s biggest problem is its framerate.

Live sporting events look best when they’re streaming at 60 frames per second. Whereas 30 frames per second has a more cinematic feel, 60 frames per second makes the action look much smoother. This video provides a useful side-by-side comparison.

Virtually every other sports streaming service supports 60 frames per second today, and it’s not as if the NFL is incapable of doing so. Its own channels already stream at the higher framerate via live TV services such as YouTube TV and Fubo. ESPN Unlimited also carries a live feed of the NFL Network at 60 frames per second, so it’s unclear why the NFL app remains stuck in the past. A spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Framerate isn’t the only issue. With the NFL app, you can’t pause or rewind the live NFL Network or Redzone feeds. If you hit the pause button, it’ll just jump back to the live feed upon resuming. There’s no DVR either, so you can’t record the NFL Network’s exclusive games and catch up later.

As for Sunday’s outage, users reported error messages, endless buffering, or simply a lack of any option to launch the NFL’s live feeds. Sadly this is to be expected from an app that seldom seems to work quite right, with users routinely complaining of login problems, loading issues, audio cutouts, and crashes. Over the years it’s been called “terrible,” “the worst app I have ever used,” “so awful I just canceled,” and “somehow [getting] worse every year.”