Netflix Tyson v Paul Fail – Live streaming challenges as Netflix host the biggest live event in streaming history

Netflix is having it’s Optus Sport World Cup moment today as their live stream of the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight suffers streaming woes around the world.

There’s a reason broadcast television just works – it’s the ultimate “one to many” technology. The same with Cable and Satellite services. A program is played through the air, cable or Satellite with receivers and televisions either subscribed or in-range just able to “tune in” with no limitation on numbers. The more people watch – there’s no effect on the quality of the broadcast.

Today as Netflix hit go on their live event broadcast of the Mike Tyson v Jake Paul fight and undercard things got interesting.

Netflix viewers around the world taking to Facebook, Threads and Twitter to express their concerns and frustrations about the live stream either failing or being poor quality.

The problem with internet streaming are the bottlenecks.

Your home WiFi network might struggle, your home internet connection, the network of your provider, the bandwidth Netflix has purchased for their own distribution – the issues could be anything along the way.

But what it does is impact the reputation of streaming generally.

This wasn’t Netflix’s first live event, they’ve done a few, but none this big.

So did Netflix prepare adequately? Or has Netflix’s biggest ever event simply crashed the internet?

Time will tell as we unpack it, but – it’s a feather in the cap of traditional broadcast, and another day of learning for streaming services hoping to take on the traditional media in the space they know so well.