NFL fans will face no issues when streaming the two Christmas Day games on Netflix, according to the streaming giants, who identified what went wrong during Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul.
History was made on Nov. 15 when Netflix hosted a live fight card ending with the main event between Tyson and Paul. After Katie Taylor controversially beat Amanda Serrano, it was time for Tyson to make his return after 19 years, but the majority of users suffered stream lag and even app crashes as servers battled the influx of live viewers.
Netflix claims that the fight reached 60 million homes, but after the coverage was slammed on social media, the NFL reached out to the streaming giants to seek reassurance ahead of Christmas Day. On Dec. 25, Netflix will exclusively stream both games as the Kansas City Chiefs face the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens take on the Houston Texans.
“The NFL did check in with Netflix following the Tyson-Paul fight to ask about the problems and assess the likelihood that they could repeat themselves on Christmas,” Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler reported on ESPN. “Netflix said the fight reached 60 million homes, and apparently part of the explanation to the league was that the unprecedented scale for them of broadcasting a live sporting event contributed to some of the challenges they faced.
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“But the NFL came away from the conversations reassured that Netflix had figured out what went wrong and that it won’t be a problem for Chiefs-Steelers or Ravens-Texans on Dec. 25.” The NFL is preparing for a historic day on Dec. 25, with the current viewership record for a Christmas game averaging 29.2 million.
That record was set in 2023 when the Chiefs faced the Las Vegas Raiders, with Taylor Swift attending the festive game on CBS. The NFL is hoping that the Netflix partnership will see those ratings increase this year, but the streaming giant has just weeks to ensure improvements are made.
In addition to speaking with the NFL, Bloomberg reported that Netflix’s Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone also published an internal memo to employees to address the issues. “This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” Stone wrote.
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce helped set a new NFL Christmas record last year.
“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.”
Netflix won’t want to impact its early relationship with the NFL and has the opportunity to prove that the struggles on Nov. 15 were a one-off error. The streaming giants also secured a 10-year, $5 billion deal with the WWE earlier this year to make it the exclusive home of Monday Night RAW.
RAW will debut on Netflix on Jan. 6, 2025, live from the new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The 10-year deal will ensure that the streaming service is the home of RAW in the U.S., Canada, UK, and Latin America.
