has been experimenting with live sports for the past few months and tennis exhibition events. There is a company the biggest test of live streaming capabilities to date: a boxing match between YouTuber (and pro boxer) Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The fight will become a spectacle for a number of reasons. Both fighters bring star power to the table. There is a 30-year age difference between them. Despite his 9-1 record, Paul can hardly be described as an elite fighter. Although Tyson is considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, he retired 19 years ago and has fought only two matches since then. Paul’s second bout was on the undercard of Tyson’s last fight in 2020 against Roy Jones Jr.
The fight will take place at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It is bound to attract a decent audience via Netflix as well. Most major boxing matches are pay-per-view, but Netflix’s 260 million subscribers will be able to watch for free.
Netflix has not released viewership figures for the Netflix Cup (a golf event) or the Netflix Slam (the ultimate tennis exhibition). Combat sports tend to deliver high viewership, however, meaning that Netflix’s infrastructure will have to handle more simulcasts than any other live event to date.
The company has been involved in other live events over the past year, including a , and a weekly cooking show with David Chang. However, the company has had problems with live streams in the past – it has to to live Love Is Blind reunion due to technical problems.
Netflix has roughly nine months to make sure its live streaming capabilities are in order before embarking on its most ambitious sports (well, sports-adjacent) project yet. From January it will be Netflix in many markets, including the flagship program Raw in the United States.
