Netflix says Paul vs. Tyson fight drew 60 million homes, but questions linger for NFL broadcasts
Netflix says Paul vs. Tyson fight drew 60 million homes, but questions linger for NFL broadcasts
The streamer’s numbers are being questioned by some seasoned media executives, and technical issues plagued the stream.
Did you try to muddle through the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 15? To call that process frustrating would be generous as thousands of viewers reported having significant problems watching the fight. Those details were conspicuously absent from Netflix’s after-action report of the fight, where it claimed a gigantic audience tuned in. Try as the streamer might to steer the narrative after the event, however, there are now serious questions as to how it will handle future live events, most notably its Christmas Day NFL games.
Key Details:
- Netflix says 60 million households tuned into the Paul and Tyson fight on Friday.
- Viewers were plagued with freezes, lag times, and bad picture quality while trying to watch the fight.
- Previous Netflix live events have also shown mixed results for audiences.
Netflix is trying to use its internal ratings for the fight as a cudgel to muscle people past the narrative that the stream was plagued with issues. It says 60 million households watched the fight around the world, with a peak of 65 million. It also shared that the co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano drew nearly 50 million viewers.
It’s unlikely that Netflix is telling a bald-faced lie with these numbers, but there are plenty of ways to massage ratings to follow a narrative, especially when they’re unverified by a third party. Some media veterans aren’t so sure that completely dissecting these numbers would show the same conclusions that Netflix is trying to put out into the world.
“Nielsen is fully capable of producing a U.S.-only viewership number for Netflix on a next day basis, but they can’t do it if Netflix doesn’t ask for it,” Fox Sports’ president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill tweeted on Saturday night. “And why would NFLX ask for it when the entire internet runs with their worldwide number no questions asked?”
That’s before diving into the technical issues that viewers reported having while trying to watch the fight. Data from Down Detector, as reported by Front Office Sports, noted that more than 85,000 viewers reported a problem trying to stream the fight, not including technical issues on Netflix’s end like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ microphone not working at one point during the stream.
This is hardly the first time that Netflix has had a problem with a livestreamed event. A special reunion episode of its “Love is Blind” reality series was similarly plagued with issues in 2023, and the streamer doesn’t have much time to fix what is now an ongoing problem. The NFL is coming to Netflix in just over a month, with two games streaming exclusively on the service — outside the home markets of the teams playing — on Christmas Day.
Fans are already unexcited about the prospect of streaming-exclusive NFL games on Netflix, according to a recent survey. Drilling down into that survey shows that the majority of fans think that Netflix can pull off the games from a technical standpoint, but the results from the Paul vs. Tyson fight might change some minds in that regard.
Last year’s NFL wildcard game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs, which was a Peacock exclusive, still almost 25 million viewers. Netflix is likely eyeing an even bigger audience for its Christmas contests, but the story coming out of the streaming giant’s first NFL broadcasts can’t be about how poor the stream quality was.
In addition to the popularity of the game, there will undoubtedly be even more viewers tuning in to the afternoon game between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens because Netflix has announced that Houston native Beyoncé will perform during halftime of the game. Between NFL-crazed football fans and Queen Bey devotees, that game has the potential to generate unparalleled interest, putting even more pressure on Netflix’s infrastructure.
The streamer has ambitious live programming plans going forward, including weekly streams of “WWE Raw” starting in 2025. It has to figure out live streaming quickly if it wants to be thought of as a trusted partner for big sports events in the future.
Netflix
Netflix is a leading subscription-based video streaming service that offers on-demand access to an extensive library of over 3,000 movies, 2,000+ TV shows, and a growing collection of acclaimed Netflix originals. Renowned for producing groundbreaking content, Netflix has become a cultural powerhouse with hit originals like “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” “Squid Game,” “The Crown,” “Tiger King,” “Bridgerton,” “The Witcher,” and “Black Mirror.”