Internet technology outages are costly. Not only do they take time to address, but there are dollars at stake, a new report from “Intelligent Observability” company New Relic reveals.
Just how much money could a media company lose due to downtime?
New Relic concludes that high-impact outages cost an average of $2 million per hour in downtime, and take some 40 minutes to resolve.
The data appear in New Relic’s State of Observability for Media and Entertainment report, which offers insights into the factors driving observability adoption in the media and entertainment industry. Surveying engineering leaders and IT team members, the report is based on data from the New Relic 2025 Observability Forecast and highlights the connection between observability, fewer outages, and a strong return on investment (ROI).
“Outages during a series finale or live sports broadcast make front-page news, and can significantly damage brand reputation,” New Relic notes.
Indeed, Rogers Communications’ Sportsnet+ on Tuesday suffered major streaming difficulties during Game 4 of the 2025 World Series, leaving some Toronto Blue Jays fuming.
New Relic’s research reveals that for 33% of respondents, outages cost between $1 and $2 million per hour of downtime, and the average cost of a high-impact outage is $2 million per hour.
The top four causes of outages were security issues, followed by network failures, capacity overloads or constraints, and software deployment errors.
Detection and resolution times are similar to the industry median—around 30 minutes to detect and 40 minutes to resolve—but New Relic says the stakes are significantly higher. “In the media and entertainment industry, the quality of experience is the product,” it says. “A 40-minute disruption during a major streaming event can cost millions in lost advertising revenue and lead directly to mass subscriber churn.”
Download the full report by clicking here.
