Twice each year, sun alignment causes brief programming outages to our video services. This phenomenon is called "sun outages" and it happens every winter/early spring and again in autumn.
Sun outages will normally affect networks for five to 20 minutes each day and do not affect local broadcast stations. Each year, fewer Xfinity customers are affected as we have been slowly moving off of satellite reception to fiber connections, which are not impacted by sun outages.
Note: Sun outages do not affect other Xfinity services.
FAQs
Why is this happening?
Sun outages occur when the positions of a satellite antenna on Earth, a satellite in the sky and the sun all line up for a brief period of time. When the sun lines up behind a satellite, the energy from the sun overpowers the satellite and causes signal interruption.
When do sun outages happen?
Sun outages typically occur before the March equinox (in February and March) and after the September equinox (in September and October) in the Northern Hemisphere. It lasts about two weeks for approximately five to 20 minutes.
How will this affect my services?
Sun outages can cause image distortion or service interruption for satellite-delivered networks. The length of impact for any one service normally is a maximum of 10 minutes.
Do I need to do anything during a sun outage?
No, you do not. Just wait a few minutes for the event to end.
You can still watch some services. The folllowing aren't impacted:
- Local broadcast stations.
- Streamed content.
- OnDemand.
- DVR recordings.
- Other non-satellite-delivered networks.
However, programs being recorded during sun outages can be affected.
Additional information
Visit our Online Support Center to find common solutions.
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