NFL Backs Netflix for Christmas Day Doubleheader Despite Recent Issues

Netflix’s historic, but technically marred, livestream of the Jake Paul–Mike Tyson fight has caused some consternation within the NFL, but the league is still supporting the company as a major doubleheader on Christmas Day approaches. 

The streaming giant is showing Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans on the holiday, the beginning of a three-year deal that heightens Netflix’s already-growing ambitions in live events. But widespread buffering and outage issues during the boxing match have prompted the league to re-inquire about the company’s technical infrastructure, according to multiple Front Office Sports sources. 

“There were clearly a lot of emails and calls flying around over the weekend,” said an industry source. “What happened was definitely noted, and there were conversations.”

Still, the league has confidence in Netflix’s ability to deliver on Christmas, sources said, and there was also a sense of relief that something of a large-scale stress test has now happened—away from the NFL. 

Self-Reflection

The NFL’s sentiment builds on an internal acknowledgment from Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone, who said in a company memo that the event failed to live up fully to its intentions and that the company intends to learn from the issues.

“This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” Stone wrote in a company memo. “I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues. 

“We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success,” she wrote. 

Major Star Power

The streaming giant, meanwhile, also sought to deflect some attention away from those traffic and buffering issues, announcing Sunday that pop superstar Beyoncé will perform during halftime of the Ravens-Texans game that will be the Christmas nightcap. The appearance in her hometown of Houston, representing the first live performance of songs from Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, follows her two prior showcases during the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show—first in 2013 as a headliner and again three years later in collaboration with Coldplay. 

Like that latter appearance, Beyoncé’s performance on Christmas will also include special guests, and given her iconic stature, marks one of the biggest musical acts at an NFL game outside of the Super Bowl. 

More Netflix Happenings

Investors also shrugged off Netflix’s issues over the weekend, sending shares up by nearly 3% Monday, closing at a new company high of $847.05 per share. Monday’s stock performance was the latest in a fervent run this calendar year in which Netflix shares have soared 81%. 

The streaming audience, while certainly big, does not have a direct comparison to other major programming, either elsewhere online or on linear TV. The figures of 60 million households and a peak of 65 million concurrent streams released by Netflix on Saturday are global reach numbers and not U.S.-specific, per-minute audience averages that are common elsewhere in the domestic media industry. Nor have they been verified by a third party. 

As a result, fully evaluating the true impact of the Paul-Tyson fight is rather difficult.

“If Nielsen required streamers to be in all-in or all-out with their live measurement—which is what’s always been required of [linear] networks—we’d have a more complete understanding of our market,” Fox Sports president of insight and analytics Mike Mulvihill posted on social media. 

Netflix is working with Nielsen on its Christmas Day NFL doubleheader but did not make a similar move for the boxing event.