Netflix is facing a lawsuit following technical issues that occurred during the live broadcast of the highly anticipated Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Friday.
Netflix is facing a lawsuit following technical issues that occurred during the live broadcast of the highly anticipated Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Friday.
The event, which took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was streamed as part of Netflix’s existing subscription service, with the fight becoming one of the most-watched sporting events ever. According to Most Valuable Promotions, the broadcast drew an estimated 108 million total viewers and 65 million live streams.
However, the event was marred by significant streaming problems, including buffering and poor picture quality. At one point, more than 90,000 complaints were recorded on downdetector.com. Frustrated by these issues, one viewer, Ronald “Blue” Dento, filed a class-action lawsuit in Florida on Monday. He is suing Netflix for breach of contract, seeking unspecified damages for the “legendary problems” he and other viewers experienced, including a lack of access, glitches, and buffering issues.
Netflix has not publicly commented on the lawsuit but acknowledged that some users had a “poor experience” and admitted they have “room for improvement.” Jake Paul, in his post-fight press conference, addressed the issue by thanking Netflix engineers for quickly resolving the problem. “Netflix crashed, yeah, but shout out to the Netflix engineers, we love you, they fixed it right away,” Paul said.
The broadcast also faced some embarrassing moments, including presenter Kate Abdo apologizing for technical issues and a brief, unintentional showing of Tyson’s bare backside after he was interviewed by his son Amir in the dressing room.
Despite the hiccups, Netflix continues to expand its live programming offerings. The streaming service plans to stream two NFL games over the Christmas period and will begin airing WWE’s Monday Night Raw live every week from January, following a $5 billion exclusive deal. In the UK, Netflix will also stream Friday Night Smackdown and premium live events.