Netflix made first foray into NFL streaming after early problem

If you believe the omens, Netflix appears to be having a very long day on Wednesday. As the streaming giant began its NFL pregame show before broadcasting the Kansas City Chiefs’ 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, viewers were greeted to the broadcast…with audio issues immediate.

Viewers were unable to hear studio host Kay Adams’ voice during her introduction for about 20 seconds of the show. Then, about nine minutes later, as studio analyst Mina Kimes offered an interesting analysis of Kansas City’s challenge on the offensive line, she was inexplicably interrupted by a promo for Squid Game 2. (Squid Game frontman n would not like such inefficiency.)

That was the story at 11:11 a.m. ET, and it wasn’t a good story.

Things generally improved after that, although I have had a number of people contact me from within the sports industry who were experiencing fourth trimester buffering issues. NFL viewers didn’t want much for Christmas, but they needed one thing. They didn’t care about presents under the Christmas tree or even a transcendent pregame show. But they needed Netflix to resolve the major buffering and freezing issues that plagued the streamer during the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul headlined boxing event last month.

(Sorry for the tortured Mariah Carey reference.) They solved them for the most part –Athletics will update how things went for the Ravens-Texans and Beyoncé’s performance.

The bigger picture, of course, is the burgeoning relationship between the NFL and Netflix. The streaming giant and the NFL announced a three-season deal in May to broadcast Christmas Day games in 2024, 2025 and 2026. This deal is further amplified given that Netflix recently obtained exclusive streaming rights to United States for the 2027 and 2031 editions of the Women’s World Cup.

These are significant signals to the market that Netflix is ​​moving from a focus on adjacent sports properties to becoming a legitimate sports rights holder. So is another Netflix foray into live events – the company’s deal for exclusive rights to WWE Raw, the long-running professional wrestling weekly staple.

Netflix paid $150 million to broadcast Wednesday’s games. This is a rounding error for a company with 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries.

In a Monday article focusing on Netflix avoiding Christmas Day woes, the Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix had not adequately prepared its own content delivery systems or its Internet service provider partners for the surge. Tyson-Paul card traffic. The Journal reported Netflix’s initial internal estimates that soccer games could attract up to 35 million simultaneous streams worldwide. Last year’s Chiefs-Raiders broadcast averaged 29.2 million on CBS and Nickelodeon, the NFL’s biggest Christmas number since 1989.

A significant difference between the Paul-Tyson event and Netflix’s NFL Christmas production was the outsourcing of production: CBS handled the broadcast of the game while NFL Media was responsible for the pregame shows, half-time and post-match. That meant a rare mix of NFL personnel from CBS, ESPN, NBC, NFL Network and Fox.

It was a highly coveted position, like being an NFL viewer – think of the long-term potential of a professional relationship with Netflix. Several artistic agents who were granted anonymity to speak freely have been informed Athletics that Netflix paid talent between high five figures and low six figures depending on the role (with gaming talent being paid on the high end).

This is why every sports broadcaster wants to have a relationship with Netflix.

As for the quality of the pre-match content, it was what you would expect from groups working together for the first time: minor hiccups and hits. Drew Brees, who wants to return to broadcasting, was part of the pregame show as well as the international broadcast. It will be interesting to see if this leads to more work. Laura Rutledge, Jason McCourty and Devin McCourty had easy chemistry. The advertising burden for viewers was significant.

One thing Netflix got right was using established broadcasters for the game’s broadcast. The Chiefs-Steelers booth featured Ian Eagle, Nate Burleson and JJ Watt along with sideline reporters Stacey Dales and Melanie Collins. It was what we expected: professional and informative.

Watt smartly admitted at the top that he was calling his brother’s play (Steelers lineman TJ Watt) and what that meant (Don’t hide the obvious). There were some gameplay issues early on. The national anthem audio was ticked and the Steelers curiously started the game with two timeouts on the graphics instead of three (this has been fixed).

The events of the fourth quarter will understandably frustrate viewers accustomed to experiencing no problems with over-the-air networks and cable outside of local broadband outages.

“Netflix is ​​still in the discovery phase,” said Ed Desser, president of Desser Sports Media Inc. and head of media for the NBA for 23 years. Athletics earlier this month. “This is an R&D measure for them and they will learn from it.”

It wasn’t the best of NFL presentations by any means, but the flow held up for the most part. It’s a win for Netflix and the NFL for now, but they still have a long way to go.

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(Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)