Is the king of streaming ready for some football?
In a first, Netflix is set to host the NFL’s two marquee Christmas Day games: the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 p.m. ET, followed by the Baltimore Ravens against the Houston Texans at 4:30 p.m. Beyoncé will headline the halftime show during the latter game, featuring her first live performance of tracks from her “Cowboy Carter” country album.
The games are a key test for the streaming giant as it doubles down on live events programming and aims to provide more than 280 million subscribers with real-time content that was once the exclusive domain of traditional television networks. But amid the hoopla, the company faces questions about whether it has the capacity to stream these events without technical glitches.
The concerns were underscored during the heavily hyped boxing match between retired pro Mike Tyson and social media personality Jake Paul. Netflix called the Nov. 15 fight the most-streamed sporting event ever, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams. But many viewers were frustrated by buffering issues during the livestream.
“Glitchy is a generous way of describing it,” said Patrick Crakes, a media consultant and former Fox Sports executive.
Similarly, the streamer’s “Love Is Blind” reunion special in April 2023 was delayed after what one of the company’s top executives described as a technical “bug” that had been accidentally introduced in an effort to improve live broadcasting after it aired a Chris Rock stand-up comedy special the previous month.
“We didn’t meet the standard that we expect from ourselves to serve our members,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said on an earnings call last year.
In the run-up to the big holiday NFL games, Netflix said it studied issues from previous live events and made necessary adjustments. The tweaks include leaning on third-party providers such as Charter Communications and Comcast, which are giving Netflix extra capacity, according to sources familiar with the matter. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.)
The media operation at the NFL, which entered into a three-year deal with Netflix to broadcast some games, feels confident about the streaming platform’s bandwidth.
“I think the evolution of the medium is getting there,” Brian Rolapp, the league’s chief media and business officer, told CNBC. “And I think they’re taking all the necessary steps to have a great Christmas Day.”
Netflix is not the only major streaming service that has pushed more deeply into high-profile events that were once carried on broadcast networks or cable channels.
Amazon Prime Video holds the exclusive streaming rights for the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.” Disney+ simulcasts sporting events through its ESPN tile, and Warner Bros.’ Max app plays CNN news broadcasts and NBA games that used to run strictly on TNT. Peacock, the platform owned and operated by NBCUniversal, drew a sizable audience this summer as the streaming home of the Paris Olympics.
Netflix has more high-profile live events on the calendar, including weekly World Wrestling Entertainment “Raw” shows that start streaming in less than two weeks. Then, in 2027 and 2031, Netflix will be home to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Netflix has also shown interest in livestreaming Hollywood awards shows; the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards aired on the platform in late February.
“I think that everyone … is going to have to get used to finding their content across multiple different distribution platforms,” said Crakes, the former Fox Sports executive.
Julia Boorstin contributed.