Nobody had a worse weekend than Netflix.
As the streaming giant attempted its first foray into live sports, technical issues marred the undercard fights, casting a shadow over an event that saw 60 million households worldwide tune in to watch 27-year-old Jake Paul take on 58-year-old Mike Tyson.
What should have been a major milestone for Netflix turned into a debacle.
So much so that people took solace in Antonio Brown, of all people, having an illegal livestream.
Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod summed it up best by saying that Netflix simply wasn’t ready for the pressure of primetime. Ready or not, they now face a bigger test: airing Christmas Day NFL games. As part of a three-year, $75 million deal, these two matchups will be Netflix’s first major dive into live sports programming on a national holiday.
The Tyson-Paul fight, an unmitigated disaster at best, was a warning sign.
Streaming problems were rampant worldwide.
Some households couldn’t even get the stream to load, while others faced constant buffering and quality issues.
Because of this, Netflix’s Chief Technology Officer sent a memo to employees addressing the fiasco.
“This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” read the message. “I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues. We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success.”
That may very well be true, but if Netflix can’t handle the pressure on Christmas Day, this “huge success” could quickly turn into an even bigger disaster.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.