Netflix Learnt Lessons From Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson!
Netflix has said it learned a lot from their Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing fight.
The platform entered the world of combat sports by broadcasting its first boxing bout. The fight produced mixed results. Fans got to see a huge spectacle as Tyson had not boxed professionally since 2005. That buzz drew in record-breaking numbers. 60 million households tuned in, making it the most-watched live boxing fight. There was also history on the co-main event. Katie Taylor’s rematch with Amanda Serrano drew in 50 million households. That was a record for the most-watched women’s boxing bout. Netflix has picked up 1.43 million new subscribers, according to data firm Antenna. But it was not all rosy. Fans complained the streaming had problems. That became widespread, which has resulted in a lawsuit.
Netflix’s Issues
“Netflix customers experienced massive streaming issues and should have known better because it’s happened before. Instead of providing the programming its viewers pay for every month, Netflix was completely unprepared and unable to fix the issues,” Complainant’s filing
“[Netflix] didn’t produce anything. Some people did not get to watch the fight. Period. End of story. Most people saw part of it. And that’s why we have juries in our country. What is that worth? Is it worth, you know, enough money to go buy a purple Lamborghini? Probably not. But it’s worth getting your money back. It’s worth something for the problems that you went through,” Billy Howard (consumer attorney)
Netflix still has plans for more combat sports events. It will broadcast Monday Night RAW in January as part of a ten-year deal worth roughly $5 billion. The lessons from Paul vs Tyson will stand them in good stead. Netflix’s chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, said as much.
Netflix Reacts
“We expected a big number, for sure. It was a big number. But again, you don’t know, and you can’t learn these things until you do them so you take a big swing. Our teams and our engineers are amazing, moved super quickly, and stabilized it, and many of the members had it back up and running pretty quickly. But we learn from those things. And we’ve all obviously done a lot of stuff to learn and get ready for the NFL and Beyoncé at halftime and so we’re totally ready and excited for WWE,” Bajaria said
Nevertheless, Netflix must address those concerns heading into next year. There is expected to be a large audience for WWE’s Monday Night RAW, given the new format on Netflix. The platform also faces competition from other streaming giants in the combat sports field. DAZN has now increased its market share, becoming a pivotal member in airing boxing fights from Saudi Arabia. Amazon Prime Video also broadcasts PBC fights, showing increased the number of streaming platforms. If Netflix wants to compete, it must ensure it can cope with the increasing demand. Bajaria was focused on doing that.
“Whenever we do live events, we want it to go smoothly for every single one of our members. That’s really important—also, to put it in perspective, it was 65 million concurrent streams, right? It was a very successful night. A lot of people [watched], the scale was very big, which is great. There’s a lot of interest in it,” Bajaria added
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