Netflix Stream Of Mike Tyson-Jake Paul Fight Jeered By Broadcast Industry Group: “A Viewing Experience Marred By Glitches And Buffering”

deadline.com:

The National Association of Broadcasters has seized on on Netflix‘s tech issues in last Friday night’s live stream of the Jake Paul–Mike Tyson boxing match.

With some 60 million global households tuning in for the long-awaited fight in Arlington, TX, the signal became blurry, buffered or altogether unavailable for many viewers, according to a flurry of social media posts. “You were probably expecting exciting nonstop action,” Alex Siciliano, SVP of Communications for the broadcast lobbying organization, wrote Monday in a blog post. “Instead, what transpired was far more disappointing – a viewing experience marred by glitches and buffering from a popular pay-TV service trying its hand in live sports.” Netflix is getting set to expand its presence in live sports and sports-adjacent programming, with a doubleheader of Christmas Day games and a multi-year deal with the WWE for Raw kicking off in January.

Siciliano says viewers can expect the blurriness to continue. The fight “was a good reminder that when it comes to live sports, no other medium can match broadcast television’s high-quality, reliable viewing experience,” he wrote. “No costly subscriptions.

No worrying about your internet speed. Just the excitement of the game, delivered in high-definition to your TV screen.” Broadcast TV, the NAB exec continued, is known for its “‘one to many’ architecture.