Netflix has about six weeks to figure it out.
The streaming service’s first foray into broadcasting a major live sporting event featuring Mike Tyson boxing Jake Paul on Friday night turned into a nightmare as Netflix didn’t have the bandwidth required and viewers were furious over streaming issues. buffering.
Netflix will stream an NFL doubleheader this Christmas, featuring the Chiefs vs. Steelers and Ravens vs. Texans, games that will both have big playoff implications in the AFC.
As sports fans encountered obstacles to watching Tyson vs. Paul, concern was already spreading on social media that Netflix might not be able to handle everyone who wants to watch the NFL this Christmas.
“It’s a disaster for Netflix. They have no chance of successfully broadcasting a Chiefs-Steelers NFL game on Christmas Day based on this performance,” OutKick founder Clay Travis wrote on X.
Pittsburgh sports talk radio host Randy Baumann exaggeratedly imagined a grisly scene if Netflix experienced another streaming debacle this Christmas.
“If the Steelers Chiefs Christmas game on #Netflix looks like this, there will be tables overturned with half-eaten Christmas hams all over western PA. Aunts and uncles will have gratin potatoes thrown at them. #BedlamInBlawnox,” Baumann wrote on X.
An NFL Memes account posted a video with the caption “If Netflix streamed NFL games,” which showed game buffering and a subsequent error message in the middle of Jayden Daniels’ recent Hail Mary at Noah Brown to defeat the Bears.
Tone Digs, a contributor to “The Pat McAfee Show,” issued a warning to Netflix.
“It’s all fun and games tonight @netflix, but if you ruin my family’s Christmas because we can’t watch the Steelers… there will be real hell to pay,” he wrote.
Netflix reportedly paid around $150 million to stream the NFL doubleheader.