Despite the technical issues, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos called the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight “substandard.”
The fight, which was streamed live on Netflix on November 15th, was plagued by screen buffering and freezing issues for some users. Speaking at the UBS conference in New York on Tuesday, Sarandos said the technology needed to stream the 5.5-hour streaming event to a “huge live audience” of 108 million people watching live around the world. I pointed out the issues.
“We were pushing[internet service providers]all the ISPs in the world, to the limits of their capabilities. That night, we were highlighting the limits of the internet itself,” Sarandos said. said. “So we set up a control room in Silicon Valley and were redesigning the entire internet to keep it going during this battle because of the unprecedented demand.”
“It’s really phenomenal. It was a Super Bowl-like crowd that we were able to draw for this game. This was a huge success for our content team, marketing and “It’s a collaboration between our publicity team, our social media team and everyone who makes it unmissable no matter where you are in the world,” he continued.
“A lot of records were set that night for a company that basically went bankrupt during the Love Is Blind reunion about a year and a half ago. I mean, a pretty positive trajectory in a very short period of time. I mean, I rode it,” Sarandos added.
Netflix has more live events scheduled, including the NFL Christmas Day Game, WWE Raw Live every Monday night starting in January, and an upcoming live show with John Mulaney.
Overall, Sarandos said the company is interested in doing “large-scale live events” more frequently. Regarding the upcoming Christmas Day game and halftime performance by Beyoncé, Sarandos said the program will be holiday-themed.
“Today is Christmas Day. So, you know today is Christmas Day, but the show and the broadcast itself and all the entertainment that goes with it is all very special and very unique and the game “I think it’s going to be bigger than itself,” he said.
Live events such as NFL games and WWE also attract “a lot of demand” for advertising, Sarandos said, adding that Netflix “significantly underestimated the Paul vs. Tyson fight.” (“If I had known the crowd was that big, I would have pitched that game more,” he quipped.)
Sarandos said Netflix doesn’t have other sports-related content in mind for live streaming at this time, but that it is “unique” and something the company can turn into an event rather than a typical season or game. He said there needs to be.
Sarandos said Netflix’s proposition for the property is that it can engage younger viewers around the world. WWE fits that idea, Sarandos said, adding that the weekly show feels like a “big event.”
“We also liked that because we also have a writers room that can accommodate 40 people for sports, so it’s much closer to our current wheelhouse of creative and storytelling,” he said.
