Netflix is facing a lawsuit after global complaints about buffering and glitches during the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight Friday night.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida on Monday (November 18) by Ronald “Blue” Denton, accuses the streaming giant of “breach of contract.”
Denton claims that, like thousands of subscribers, he struggled to watch the highly anticipated event due to streaming issues.
“Around the broadcast’s 8 p.m. . E.T start, viewers were faced with legendary problems including; no access, streaming glitches and buffering issues,” the suit states. Denton is seeking unspecified damages.
what kind of alternate reality are we living in when 5M ppl are watching Mike Tyson box Jake Paul on Antonio Brown’s ‘CTESPN’ live stream because Netflix is running like 2003 dial up ?????
— Rachel A DeMita (@RADeMita) November 16, 2024
and
The Jake Paul vs Tyson fight should have been on Amazon and not Netflix. How the illegal stream work better than the actual app?!
— Steve Byrum (@Nikesmilez) November 16, 2024
and
Netflix tech support trying to stream the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight pic.twitter.com/oshJu9xcoc
— At The Buzzer (@AtTheBuzzer1) November 16, 2024
and
How are y’all gonna have the biggest fight of the year on your platform & y’all stream can’t go longer than 5 minutes without buffering… WTF Netflix pic.twitter.com/PnudsNozfc
— Brodcast B ♉️ (@BrodcastNetwork) November 16, 2024
Netflix acknowledged the streaming issues in a post-match statement released Monday.
“This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” said Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone in an internal email to employees.
“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.”
The fight streamed live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was a record-breaker, drawing 108 million viewers globally and peaking at 65 million concurrent U.S. households.
However, Detector reported at least 85,000 complaints, with social media users slamming Netflix for the poor streaming quality.
One moment that sparked outrage was when boxing legend Evander Holyfield and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had their mics cut out while discussing the fight.
Adding fuel to the fire, Jones was hyping Netflix’s upcoming NFL Christmas doubleheader, featuring games between the Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, and Houston Texans.
The live broadcast will also see Beyoncé performing tracks from her “Cowboy Carter” album for the first time, further raising the stakes for Netflix.
Social media was quick to warn the streaming giant not to repeat the fiasco. Even Howard Stern weighed in on his radio show.
“You know, I don’t how this stuff works, but you gotta make sure it works. … But if you f— up people’s football, there’s gonna be hell to pay,” he said.
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Netflix couldn’t even stream a Tyson fight right but now they doing a Christmas NFL game
Featuring Beyonce
Ok bro
— Still Knigga. (@Less_HumbleTeej) November 18, 2024
Get them servers fixed now bitch cause I’ll fuck you and them Texans and ravens up
— Eli (@elisgroove) November 18, 2024
every Netflix live streaming engineer rn pic.twitter.com/LQS1gKU095
— Brody (@heshiebee) November 18, 2024
Hopefully looks better than this. pic.twitter.com/7wWpiRBiQI
— delmer paul (@mrdelmerpaul) November 18, 2024
