Netflix has issued a statement in response to widespread complaints about the quality of Friday’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson livestream.
‘This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,’ Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone wrote to employees, as reported by Bloomberg.
‘I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues,’ she continued.
Fans on both sides of the Atlantic faced poor image quality, prolonged buffering and spotty audio throughout Friday’s undercard. Meanwhile, hundreds online complained of error messages, while ‘#unwatchable’ began trending on X. And according to Downdetector, which tracks online outages, more than 80,000 customers were experiencing issues by 10:35pm New York time on Friday.
Despite this, Netflix sees the event as a success after claiming as many as 65 million households were viewing at one point.
Mike Tyson (black gloves) fights Jake Paul (silver gloves) during Friday’s Netflix livestream
‘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,’ Stone added.
The streaming issues will remain a topic of interest with Netflix scheduled to stream an NFL doubleheader on Christmas Day.
Fans, of course, have been less forgiving to Netflix.
‘Netflix is scamming everyone into watching a fight they have no idea how to support technically,’ one critic wrote on X.
‘Well, look at the bright side,’ one person joked. ‘Nothing like Netflix bringing the country back together after a divisive election. Seems we’re all on the same side tonight.’
The frustrations extended beyond the livestream.
There were also problems for those on the broadcast as well. Kate Scott, who provided hosting duties, was overheard asking the producers ‘where are we’ as those on the desk struggled to hear each other.
And it wasn’t just Scott having issues. Tyson’s former rivals Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield were also struggling to hear each other.
At one point Lewis asked Holyfield if he expected Tyson to bite Paul’s ear, as Iron Mike famously did to ‘The Real Deal’ in their 1997 rematch. The problem was Holyfield couldn’t understand Lewis, and by the time he did, the conversation was moving in another direction.
