Variety: Netflix Sued Over Technical Glitches in ‘Unwatchable’ Jake Paul-Mike Tyson Boxing Match

Story from Variety:

At least one Netflix customer was disappointed enough over the company’s glitchy livestream of last Friday’s fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson that he’s gone to court.

Ronald “Blue” Denton, a resident of Hillsborough County, Fla., who says he is a Netflix subscriber, sued the company in Florida state court. The lawsuit, filed Monday, seeks unspecified monetary damages and class-action status on behalf of other consumers who were affected. The lawsuit accuses Netflix of breach of contract and deceptive trade practices under Florida law, per WFLA-TV. Denton’s complaint alleges Netflix was “woefully ill-prepared” for the high demand of the Paul-Tyson fight, and that the livestream was “unwatchable” because of the problems.

Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the evening of the heavily hyped Paul-Tyson fight, Nov. 15, Netflix customers took to social media to complain about their video feeds freezing while the livestream was buffering.

Even with the technical problems, Netflix’s Tyson-Paul match drew an estimated average minute audience (AMA) of 108 million live viewers globally — which the streamer said made it the “most-streamed global sporting event ever.” The event peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, with 38 million concurrent streams in the U.S.

According to Denton’s lawsuit, “60 million Americans were hyped to see ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ versus YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was ‘The Baddest Streaming on the Planet.’” (Netflix had previously reported that the Paul-Tyson fight was viewed by 60 million households globally.)

In April 2023, Netflix hosted its first major live event, a “Love Is Blind” reunion, which was massively delayed because of technical issues — and became available on the platform 19 hours after it was supposed to stream live. “Netflix customers experienced massive streaming issues and should have known better because it’s happened before,” according to Denton’s lawsuit.

The Florida lawsuit claims there were “over 100,000 people complaining online” about the technical issues with Netflix’s Paul-Tyson livestream and said that “boxing fans, along with the average Americans wanting to see a legend in what would most likely be his last fight, were faced with legendary problems, including: no access, streaming glitches and buffering issues.”

“Instead of providing the programming its viewers pay for every month, Netflix was completely unprepared and unable to fix the issues,” the lawsuit says.

Paul, 27, defeated Tyson, 58, in eight rounds in a unanimous decision in the heavyweight fight, which took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.