AFTER A YEAR OF BEING ONE OF THE MOST DISCUSSED EVENTS IN SPORTS, PAUL VS. TYSON SET A MASSIVE STREAMING RECORD FOR NETFLIX. PITTING SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER JAKE PAUL AGAINST SPORTS ICON MIKE TYSON, THE BOXING MATCH WAS FIRST Rumored TO BE SETTING UP IN NOVEMBER 2023 BEFORE BEING CONFIRMED IN MARCH 2024 AS AN EXHIBITION CHALLENGE WITH NETFLIX PREPARING FOR LIVE STREAMING OF THE EVENT. AFTER SEVERAL DELAYS DUE TO TYSON’S HEALTH CONCERNS, PAUL VS. TYSON HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 15, WITH THE TWO FIGHTS IN KNOWN CONFRONTATION IN THE FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE.
AFTER THE EVENT, NETFLIX SHARED THE FIRST VIEWER INFORMATION FOR PAUL VS. TYSON. THE BOXING MATCH HAS ATTRACTED A TOTAL OF 60 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS TO VIEW LIVE WORLDWIDE, VIEWINGS HAVING LATELY PEAKED 65 MILLION VIEWERS AT THE SAME TIME AS THE MAIN STREAM OF THE SERRANO VS. EVENT. TAYLOR 2 BROUGHT ABOUT 50 MILLION CASELIVES. THIS FIGURE PUTTS PAUL VS. TYSON ABOVE NETFLIX’S PREVIOUS RECORD OF THE ROAST OF TOM BRADY BY APPROXIMTIVENTS AS CONTEMPORARY STREAMERS OF 1.8 MILLION.
## WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE FUTURE OF NETFLIX
AT FIRST SIGHT, PAUL VS. TYSON ATTRACTING SUCH A RECORD ATTENDANCE ATTENDANCE IS A GREAT SIGN OF THEIR CONTINUING INVESTMENT IN FUTURE LIVE EVENTS. THE PLATFORM HAS ALREADY SIGNED A 10-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH WWE FOR WEEKLY LIVE PROGRAMMING, WHICH WILL BEGIN STREAMING RAW IN JANUARY 2025 IN THE USA, CANADA, UK AND LATIN AMERICA BEFORE EXPANDING GLOBALLY. THEY ALSO HAVE A DEAL WITH THE NFL TO STREAM AT LEAST ONE CHRISTMAS GAME PER YEAR, WITH 2024 SEEING BOTH BROADCAST ON THE PLATFORM.
THAT SAID, THE PLATFORM STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE THEY CAN CONSIDER EXPANDING THEIR LIVE STREAMING PORTFOLIO. PAUL VS. TYSON HAS DOMINATED SOCIAL MEDIA DUE TO HIS TECHNICAL PROBLEMS, WITH SOME REPORTS INDICATION THAT ABOUT 90,000 BOXES WERE HAVING OUTAGES LEADING TO THE START OF THE FIGHT, WHILE NUMEROUS OTHERS COMPLAINING OF ONGOING OUTAGES DURING THE FIGHT. WITH THE PLATFORM HAVING AN ESTIMATED 283 MILLION USERS WORLDWIDE, IF HAVING 60 MILLION USERS ENDED UP PEAKS THEY COULD KNOW OF OUTAGES, THEY WOULD HAVE TO ADJUST THEIR SERVERS TO BETTER ADAPT TO LARGER EVENTS.
## OUR OPINION ON THE RECORD NUMBERS OF PAUL VS. TYSON AND THE FUTURE LIVE ON NETFLIX
Ultimately it’s not too surprising to me that Paul Vs. Tyson turned out to have a great record. Both fighters have a good number of followers behind them, although Paul has certainly fueled the anticipation for the fight with his over the top and offensive statements against the former world heavyweight champion without any doubt. Together with what is still considered the number one streaming platform in the world, the fight was practically destined to set some audience records.
That said, the amount of technical issues Netflix users have encountered when trying to watch Paul vs. Tyson doesn’t give me much confidence in the future of the platform’s live broadcasts. Given their plan to push for more events, I’d like to think they plan to address these issues up front, but until they release some kind of statement apologizing or acknowledging users who have experienced outages trying to watch the fight, I stand a little skeptical about their future with WWE and the NFL.
Fonte: Netflix
