The Best Streaming Service for Super Bowl Parties

Are you hosting a Super Bowl party this year and want the best experience for your guests? YouTube TV is your best option, here’s why.

Although the game is played on a Sunday in February, the Super Bowl is a de facto American holiday. In case you needed evidence, close to 20 million people miss work the day after the Super Bowl. The chances are excellent that most of the hooky playing NFL fans calling out sick on the Monday after the Super Bowl are doing so because they were at a Super Bowl party, the most American of social gatherings where beer and guacamole flow like fine wine.

If it’s your turn to play host to a Super Bowl Party for Super Bowl LVII from Las Vegas, and you’re looking for the best technology to complement the spread in your kitchen, YouTube TV is the best choice for streaming the game.

YouTube TV has innovated in the world of live sports

When YouTube TV secured the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket this season, the move signaled a serious commitment to live sports, and especially football. Although the new Sunday Ticket price tag, at $449 without a YouTube TV subscription, is eye popping, most fans welcomed YouTube TV taking over Sunday Ticket because it meant leaving behind DIRECTV STREAM’s crazy satellite dish rule, which prevented many out-of-market NFL fans living in single family houses from streaming out-of-market football.

YouTube TV was the first to make Sunday Ticket a streaming only package, which is was an obvious move to make, but also a welcome innovation.

Further, YouTube TV offers the largest library of live sports in 4K, and built a mobile only real time application for NFL.com fantasy football team owners to follow their player’s stats in real time.

That is the background.

Now, let’s list the reasons that YouTube TV is the winner for Super Bowl party hosts by a mile.

Why YouTube TV is the best option for Super Bowl parties

Unfortunately, most NFL teams don’t make the Super Bowl, it’s a two team affair. In fact, some never have appeared in the Big Game. I am a long suffering Lions fan, and while I predict the Lions will finally end their Super Bowl drought in Vegas at Super Bowl LVIII, the fact remains that most guests at a Super Bowl party don’t have a strong rooting interest because their team is sitting at home watching the game just like they are.

This means that conversation, food, and miscellaneous revelry can get in the way of the actual game.

Sometimes the party can get out of hand, and a key play, or a series of key plays get missed.

Key Plays Feature

YouTube TV offers a Key Plays feature that allows fans to catch up on a game by viewing only the most important plays.

The YouTube TV Key Plays feature is perfect for Super Bowl party guests to catch up on the biggest plays if the party festivities have become a distraction and an important touchdown goes unnoticed.

Stats View Feature

If you’re an old school football fan like me, you will remember the days of the ESPN Gamecast, a live running tally of team stats while a game was taking place. YouTube TV brought this type of feature directly into its app, improved on it, and calls it Stats View.

With Stats View, NFL fans can see the important stat lines in real time (or while watching in DVR) through the YouTube TV platform. Stats View is a great option for following along with all the action to the side of the game’s actual score, which is always of interest while the Super Bowl is unfolding.

Note that Fubo offers a similar feature called the FanView Experience, but it isn’t available consistently. Having said that, I expect Fubo to have the FanView Experience ready for Super Bowl LVIII.

The 2024 Super Bowl won’t be available in 4K

As I wrote about in a previous blog, unfortunately, the 2024 Super Bowl won’t be available in 4K as CBS has yet to rollout 4K programming for the AFC Playoffs, and doesn’t seem to have a plan to do so (at least yet) for Super Bowl LVIII.

This means that while YouTube TV’s 4K plus add-on will get fans some NFL Playoff coverage in 4K, it won’t be of much use during the Super Bowl. Things will change when FOX or NBC takes over the broadcast.

What about Multiview?

Both YouTube TV and Fubo offer excellent Multiview features, however, Multiview has less utility in a big game setting like the Super Bowl since CBS does not offer a Megacast like ESPN does with the College Football Playoff.

Having said that, YouTube TV does plan to offer Multiview for Sunday Ticket users, which is a perfect use of the technology which will allow out-of-market NFL fans the ability to maximize value by watching multiple games at one time.