The Tyson-Paul Fight Was Bad But Netflix’s Buffering Was Worse

If you watched live and were disappointed in the eight-round bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, you were probably more disappointed with the Netflix live experience in general. Throughout the fight card, Netflix suffered from multiple technical issues, including buffering, freezes and server disconnections.

While many may have waited until the headline walkouts to tune in and watch live, the issues started long before Paul and Tyson entered the ring. The most common issue was simply buffering, which left fans having to wait for the live feed to continue.

However, for many viewers, the connection would drop out completely leaving those fans unable to watch the live feed at all.

What made these server disconnections all the worse is that Netflix’s diagnostics screen continually suggested the problem lay with the user’s internet connection rather than Netflix’s servers.

We watched a good chunk of the whole fight night live and were also one of those that encountered many of the technical issues others faced, requiring us to continually attempt to restart the feed, the app, and even the internet (just in case).

As live events are still a new thing for Netflix, it should be expected that the platform will encounter technical issues while ironing out the experience. The problem here is that Netflix is attempting to iron out those issues during high profile events.

In just a month, for example, Netflix will play host to the NFL’s Christmas Day games and that’s likely to be another event that draws in a horde of concurrent viewers. If Paul vs. Tyson was anything to go by, it seems likely that many NFL fans will be disappointed with the streaming experience on Christmas Day.

Then, only weeks after Christmas Day football, Netflix is due to begin streaming WWE Raw. Naturally, many WWE fans who tuned in last night are now less than confident in Netflix’s ability to host Raw.

While we can probably expect Netflix to get better at hosting these events over time, the problem the service faces in the meantime is the possibility of sports fans losing confidence in its ability to host live sports.