Don't Blame Google Fiber For That World Series Outage

The first game of the series between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets went dark at 9:20 pm ET when Fox, the network hosting the event, experienced "technical difficulties."
GettyImages182919740
Getty Images

Those watching the Game 1 of the World Series have struck out tonight.

The first game of the series between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets went dark at 9:20 pm ET when Fox, the network hosting the event, experienced "technical difficulties" that cut off the broadcast to the millions of people watching the game. The outage followed a Google Fiber collapse in host city Kansas City that left countless people in that city staring at blank screens.

Though the two snafus weren't related, together they left baseball fans fuming.

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

The trouble began when the Royals had one out in the bottom of the fourth and the feed abruptly cut to a Fox graphic that explained the network was experiencing technical difficulties. Viewers were quickly redirected to a live studio shot, where surprised commentators extemporaneously analyzed the game to that point in a bid to fill time as the game came to a halt. With the feed down, the teams—reliant upon Fox for replays in the event they needed to challenge a call—decided to wait it out.

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

The issue, as relayed by Fox announcers, was that the network's truck had "lost power." Fox confirmed the power outage in a statement provided at 11:12 ET:

"Before the start of the bottom of the fourth inning of tonight's World Series Game 1, a rare electronics failure caused both the primary and backup generators inside the FOX Sports production compound to lose power...We apologize for the interruption in tonight's coverage and are working to ensure that the remainder of the World Series is broadcast without incident."

Around the same time as the Fox electronics failure, Google Fiber tweeted an apology for disrupted service in the Kansas City area:

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

A Google Fiber spokesperson provided the following comment, which confirms that Kansas City customers experienced an outage which began a few minutes before 8PM, and lasted multiple hours for some:

"On Tuesday night, some Google Fiber customers in Kansas City experienced a service outage. With the World Series playing, we know this was an important night for Kansas Citians, and we're sorry for the interruption. Our teams worked quickly to fix the issue, restoring service for most people within the hour. All service was restored by 10:15pm local time." Google is still looking into the cause of the lapse.

The broadcast of the game outside of Kansas City resumed with viewers receiving the international feed of the game hosted by the MLB Network, and both teams still unable to see the full complement of replay angles they would expect with unimpeded service.

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

After a seven-minute delay, Fox switched to the MLB Network feed, which was being used for international broadcasts. That feed briefly lost power as well, but was back on the air in less than a minute. It took a little over 20 minutes for the regular Fox broadcast to resume.

Between the technical difficulties and extra-innings nail-biting, Kansas City fans have had a rough night.

This post has been updated to reflect new information in comments provided by Google and Fox.