Yahoo Lifestyle Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Touts ‘Super Bowl-Like Audience’ for Jake Paul-Mike Tyson Fight, Says of Technical Issues That ‘We Hate to Disappoint Members for One Second’
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the mammoth turnout of viewers to watch Jake Paul fight Mike Tyson was a success — notwithstanding the video glitches that disrupted the livestream.
“We hate to disappoint members for one second,” said Sarandos, speaking Tuesday at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York. “On that night, we were stressing our own technology” as well as that of every internet service provider across the globe, he added: “We were stressing the limits of the internet itself that night.”
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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. All told, the event, including two undercard fights, stretched over 5.5 hours.
Sarandos said that “we have the most brilliant engineers on the planet” who “beat themselves up” when technical problems arise.
But he touted the results of the event even with the issues: The 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.
“It’s a Super Bowl-like audience we were able to draw,” Sarandos said, claiming it was the biggest live audience for a single event other than a Super Bowl since the 1980s.
On Christmas Day, Netflix is set to livestream two NFL games for the first time (Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans). And starting in January, Netflix will run WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” live each week under a multibillion-dollar, 10-year pact.
About the upcoming NFL livestreams, Sarandos didn’t specifically address Netflix’s technical readiness. He noted that in addition to the two “great games,” the event will include Beyoncé’s halftime show during the Texans-Ravens game. The superstar’s performance and the holiday-themed programming surrounding the gridiron action “will be bigger than” the games themselves, Sarandos suggested.
Sarandos reiterated that for Netflix, the economics of acquiring full-season streaming rights to sports don’t make sense. But he said sports leagues want to reach younger fans and a global audience, making Netflix a good partner for “bespoke” events, like the NFL’s Christmas Day games.
Also during his UBS session, Sarandos praised the last season of “Stranger Things,” which will end with Season 5 on Netflix next year. “The finale of ‘Stranger Things’ is so good,” he said. “It leans into that very emotional connection.” He also called out the third and final season of “Squid Game” coming in 2025 (following Season 2’s premiere on Dec. 26) as well as the return of hit series “Wednesday.” Sarandos said that “artistically,” he’s excited about the release next year of Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of “Frankenstein,” starring Jacob Elordi as the monster and Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein.
Netflix, the industry’s leading premium video streaming provider, posted third-quarter 2024 earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, gaining 5.1 million subscribers globally to hit 282.72 million as of the end of September. The company provided guidance for 2025 revenue of $43 billion-$44 billion, which would represent growth of 11%-13%. In addition, Netflix said it’s targeting a 2025 operating margin of 28% vs. its forecast for 27% in 2024.
While Netflix is providing revenue and margin guidance for 2025, it will no longer report subscriber numbers on a regular basis as of Q1 2025 (and it already stopped providing quarterly sub forecasts), which have been closely followed by industry analysts. That’s because other metrics like engagement and profitability better reflect its overall health, according to the company.
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