If you watched the Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul match on Netflix last week, you know disappointment. I don’t mean the fight. Sure, that was a snoozefest preceded by some truly compelling undercard fights. No, the disappointment was in Netflix, one of the best streaming services, which serves hundreds of millions of people every day but somehow succumbed to 65 million concurrent viewers with a deeply pixellated action, a frustrating spinning wheel, and sometimes no video service at all.
For those unaware, Netflix tried its hand at live sports last Friday, broadcasting a full card of pro-level fights over three hours and culminating in the highly anticipated bout between the 26-year-old Paul and the 58-year-old former champ Tyson. The fight went about how you would expect between someone in the prime of their youth and a boxer who retired almost 20 years ago. However, throughout the evening, Netflix became wildly unstable. I watched a good part of all the action and experienced numerous outages, as well as a fair amount of videos that looked like graphics from Mike Tyson’s 1987 PunchOut! game for NES. At times, the throughput devolved into dial-up at best.
I’m describing my experience, but I was far from alone. Social Media was flooded with reports, and site and service performance tracking service Downdetector reported tens of thousands of service issues. Reuters termed it an “outage.”
Netflix has yet to comment publicly on the performance issues, but it did tout the audience numbers, claiming that 60 million households tuned in for the Tyson vs. Paul match. Even some of the undercards, like the women’s boxing rematch between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, drew 50 million. I can confirm that the video performance on that compelling match was at least as bad as what I experienced in the title match.
It’s not a good look for a streaming platform that’s set to aggressively enter the live sporting event space with the WWE and the NFL. And it may be quite alarming for Beyoncé fans, which are legion.
The music icon just signed up to perform as the Christmas Day half-time show for Netflix’s first NFL game between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens.
A live football game on Christmas is sure to draw millions of viewers. It might not be Tyson vs. Paul levels, at least not until Beyoncé takes the stage. Many people who don’t care a whit about the pigskin sport will tune in to see Beyoncé’s first live performance of tunes from her Grammy-nominated country album, Cowboy Carter.
If Netflix thinks boxing fans are vocal, wait until they get an earful of the Beyhive.
It’s possible, though, that Netflix learned a thing or two from the Tyson vs. Paul bout and is now shoring up its backbone in anticipation of this Dec. 25 mega event. Maybe, but without another comparable live event in between, how will Netflix test an upgraded system? As I see it, Netflix will be flying without a net.
If Netflix wants to avoid Beyonce and her fans’, it better pony up with some servers and as much backbone support as possible – maybe 16 Carriages worth – as it can muster. Netflix must understand this is not Just For Fun. It won’t be enough for Netflix to respond “Ya Ya” or play Texas Hold ‘Em with resources. No crying Alligator Tears that you couldn’t get it done. This isn’t your, Smoke Hour, Netflix. It’s essentially your Super Bowl, so do all you can so you can be Livin’ the Dream with Beyonce’ and her fans.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
