Netflix’s $240m NFL streaming nightmare as coverage stumbles

Netflix’s move into the sporting market suffered yet another setback on Christmas Day with their $240m outlay off to a rough start.

Netflix committed multiple flubs in the opening minutes of its NFL coverage.

While the streaming quality on its pregame show stood up after issues during last month’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, the Boxing Day (AEDT) broadcast began with silence while Kay Adams kicked things off, her microphone apparently not on during the opening roughly 10 seconds, the NY Post reports.

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Several minutes later, while Mina Kimes was in the middle of talking, Netflix cut to an ad for Squid Games season 2.

The pregame show then returned as if nothing happened.

The pre-game coverage stumbled out of the blocks. Joe Sargent/Getty Images/AFP

Netflix began its first live broadcast of the NFL on Thursday, with a two-hour pregame show leading up to the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers contest ahead of the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans.

Once the first game began, Netflix’s scorebug showed the Steelers having only two timeouts during the opening drive; it was fixed after several minutes.

The Wall Street Journal reported Netflix paid $A240 million for the two games, and the streamer will get at least one holiday game each of the next two seasons.

Travis Kelce and the Chiefs got the job done. Justin K. Aller/Getty Images/AFP

Concern was raised about how Thursday’s broadcasts would go after widespread issues during the Paul-Tyson boxing bout, with many of the roughly 60 million announced viewers experiencing buffering issues.

The NFL came away from talks with Netflix “reassured” that Netflix knew what went wrong and that the issues would be resolved for Boxing Day, ESPN reported last month.

While traffic on the stream will likely increase greatly once the Chiefs and Steelers kick off, the streaming quality held up well early during the pregame show.

But the other technical issues struck the wrong first impression.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Netflix’s $240m NFL streaming nightmare as coverage stumbles