One month ago, Netflix was on most sports fans’ minds when its glitchy, buffering mess of a stream marred the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match. It was a bad showing. Making it more ominous was that the streamer was set to air a pair of NFL games 40 days later.
Those two games are now finished, and we can officially say Netflix’s reputation for live streaming has emerged unscathed, for the most part.
There were some complaints on social media about the picture quality and an awkward start with a muted microphone, but nothing approached the torrent of rage that hit the company during the Paul-Tyson fight, which made seemingly every user endure regular freezes throughout the main card. The glitches were arguably a bigger story than the rather sad fight at the center of the festivities, in which Paul defeated the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion by unanimous decision.
Netflix apparently learned its lesson and beefed up its servers, while also going all-out on production value. That included a Beyoncé halftime concert that could have honestly passed for a legitimate Super Bowl halftime show.
Both games were significantly one-sided, as the Kansas City Chiefs never trailed in a 29-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers while the Baltimore Ravens dominated the Houston Texans from start to finish in a 31-2 pasting.
Live streaming has been a work in progress for Netflix over the past couple years. Its first foray into a live event was an even bigger disaster than last month’s boxing match, as a “Love is Blind” reunion show failed to get off the ground last April. The stream was eventually canceled after a 75-minute delay, with the reunion recorded and aired later.
The progress is important, as live event coverage is one of Netflix’s biggest priorities for the future. The reason why: The streamer reported a peak of 65 million concurrent streams for the Paul-Tyson fight, making it by far the most-watched fight of the year. The co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano also reportedly hit nearly 50 million households, which would make it the most-watched women’s sporting event ever aired in the U.S.
A lot of people watched Netflix’s NFL games. It went better than Netflix’s last live event. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
The early returns for Netflix’s NFL games are similarly encouraging, as it reported nearly one third of its global subscribers, coming in from over 200 countries, tuned in for at least part of the earlier game Wednesday between the Chiefs and Steelers.
Netflix has plenty more live events coming up as well, most notably the rights for the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups.
On the NFL’s side, success with Netflix would be significant for two of the league’s biggest priorities, as it offers both a large international audience and the ability to prepare for an increasingly streaming-heavy future. The NFL is hardly hurting for ratings these days, but it’s not going to turn down an opportunity for yet another enormous revenue stream.
