Last Friday’s boxing exhibition fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson brought in more than 60 million viewers for Netflix’s first live combat sports event.
As Paul beat Tyson via split decision, Netflix revealed that 60 million households watched the event across the globe, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams.
The global event was the first time Netflix had live broadcast a combat sports event, but follows similar efforts in regards to the exhibition events ‘Netflix Cup’ and ‘Netflix Grand Slam’ in golf and tennis respectively.
Despite its previous two outings live streaming sporting events for the first time, Paul vs. Tyson garnered significantly more viewers for a live sporting event on Netflix, which may be why the streaming giant ran into buffering issues.
Several people took to social media to voice their concerns regarding buffering issues when watching Paul vs. Tyson on Netflix, also criticising the poor visual quality once the buffering had stopped.
But it was not just Netflix customers last Friday that were critical of Netflix’s live streaming feed. WWE fans also voiced their concerns as the professional wrestling company’s weekly flagship show RAW will be broadcast live on Netflix in early January as part of a 10-year deal.
According to professional wrestling publication Fightful Select, WWE officials had been assured by Netflix that “these issues would be kept to a minimum” in relation to the complaints made during the live stream of Paul vs. Tyson.
High-ranking officials at WWE also noted the Netflix viewership of last Friday’s boxing exhibition was a good thing and bodes well for its future with the streaming platform.
Whilst not all viewers will have experienced buffering issues, it is not a great start for Netflix’s live sports content ambitions and may have not anticipated the large viewership Paul vs. Tyson garnered last Friday.
Netflix will be looking to rectify the buffering issues quickly before Christmas Day when it broadcasts two NFL fixtures; the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans.
Insider Sport recently analysed the future of Netflix’s live sports content strategy, with package deal games and one-off event offerings seemingly being preferred by the company as opposed to acquiring lengthy, expensive broadcast rights from sports leagues over yearly contracts.
What last weekend has also told Netflix viewers regarding its sports content strategy is live performances from musical artists.
Beyoncé will be performing in her hometown of Houston Christmas Day during half-time of the Texans – Ravens game, whilst fellow Houston native Travis Scott was confirmed to perform during RAW’s debut episode on Netflix on 6 January from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
