Netflix
The evening was not easy for Netflix and the platform’s subscribers during the boxing fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, plagued by streaming problems all evening. Should WWE and its fans be worried?
Netflix had more than a year to prepare for the live broadcast of the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson this Friday, November 15, but that did not prevent the streaming platform from facing technical problems during the he event which brought together more than 60 million curious people on the platform, announced Netflix.
Spectators who indeed had to endure numerous inconveniences during the event, in particular sound problems, but also and above all problems concerning the stream itself from the second fight (freezes, long loading times or not). loading at all), and throughout the evening.
“It’s official: Netflix wasn’t ready for this. It’s unwatchable. » said Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sport, as “#NetflixCrash” and “Unwatchable” trended on X during the event.
60 million households around the world tuned in live to watch Paul vs. Tyson!
The boxing mega-event dominated social media, shattered records, and even had our buffering systems on the ropes. pic.twitter.com/kA8LjfAJSk
— Netflix (@netflix) November 16, 2024
Is WWE at risk of the same problems?
From 2025, Netflix will host American football from the NFL but also and especially WWE with Monday Night Raw starting on January 6, and the problems of this Friday evening have given rise to concerns. If we do not expect the same audience for WWE Raw (which still brings together between 1.5 and 2 million spectators on USA Network each week, only for the United States), the broadcast of major events like WrestleMania next April, which has a history of breaking records on the WWE Network, would be more easily subject to problems of this ilk.
According to Fightful, the question would have arisen internally at WWE, but the latter, in discussions with Netflix, would have been reassured that this type of problem would be “reduced to a minimum”, due to a smaller audience than for the boxing event.
Also read: WWE Raw: Netflix hopes to have Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk
Less watched events have experienced the same setbacks previously, notably the dating show Love Is Blindof which Netflix had broadcast a special episode live in 2023 and which had suffered streaming problems, forcing the platform to broadcast the episode on delay.
Wrestling fans prefer, in the meantime, to have fun with the situation. “WWE will be on Netflix in January and will freeze as soon as Otis spins lol. »quips one person on X. The NFL, more watched than the WWE, is undoubtedly more worried. “Jerry Jones explains that Netflix is an important part of the future of the NFL in a microphone that doesn’t work and less than a minute later the stream goes down” remarked Mike Mulvihill, President of Insights and Analytics at FOX Sports, FOX Entertainment and Tubi.
When contacted, Netflix did not wish to comment on the situation at this time.
