Jake Paul and Mike Tyson faced off against one another in the first-ever live-stream sporting event on Netflix. The result of the event being live-streamed in this way led to a record 65 million concurrent streamers watching the boxing event all at once, according to Most Value Promotions.
Naturally, Netflix may not have accounted for the millions of people who were attempting to watch the fight all at once. The strain on the servers led to countless issues with streaming quality, buffering, and access. Thousands of people began to record their problems online.
As a result of the poor streaming quality, a class action lawsuit has now been filed in Florida. A man by the name of Ronald “Blue” Denton has filed the lawsuit, which states that around 90,000 people lost the ability to watch the live-streamed fight.
Denton filed the lawsuit in Hillsborough County, Florida on Monday, accusing Netflix of breach of contract and deceptive trade practices.
NBC Chicago contacted Netflix for a response to the troubles and was told, in part, “nothing to comment on at this time.”
According to a report from WFAA, the lawsuit indicates that viewers “were faced with legendary problems, including no access, streaming glitches, and buffering issues.”
Additionally, “60 million Americans were hyped to see ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ versus YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was ‘The Baddest Streaming on the Planet’,” the lawsuit stated.
So far, Netflix has not commented on the issues stemming from the quality of the fight to many households.
Many are now concerned that Netflix will have the same issues when the NFL heads to the streamer for the first time on Christmas. Two games are set to be shown on the streamer: the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans.
Despite the growing concerns, ESPN’s Dan Graziano stated that the NFL is already doing its due diligence to ensure the same issues will not be replicated. According to Graziano’s report:
“The buffering problems that Netflix had with the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight Friday raised some eyebrows around the league since the NFL is scheduled to broadcast two Christmas Day games on Netflix this year. Obviously it would cause a major uproar if the stream cut out or froze in the middle of a spectacular Lamar Jackson scramble or Patrick Mahomes deep throw to the end zone.
The NFL did check in with Netflix following the Tyson-Paul fight to ask about the problems and assess the likelihood that they could repeat themselves on Christmas. Netflix said the fight reached 60 million homes, and apparently part of the explanation to the league was that the unprecedented scale for them of broadcasting a live sporting event contributed to some of the challenges they faced.”
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Newsweek Sports
