When the Houston Texans play the Baltimore Ravens at NRG Stadium in Houston on December 25, Queen Bey is scheduled to light up the atmosphere.
On November 15, the highly anticipated boxing battle between YouTuber Jake Paul and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson drew over 100 million viewers worldwide. According to reports, a lot of people attempted to watch it, but because of the overwhelming volume of viewers, many reported buffering issues and other difficulties that disrupted what ended up being a fairly dull slugfest.
The internet’s point-to-point communication system, which is currently less dependable than traditional broadcast TV’s multipoint infrastructure when millions or tens of millions of people attempt to stream an event at the same time, has some commentators wondering if Netflix is fully prepared to provide dependable streams during its upcoming Christmas Day NFL doubleheader.
The Beyhive is particularly excited about whether Beyoncé’s scheduled halftime performance at the streamer’s first-ever NFL two-fer on Christmas Day could see the same buffering problems as the occasionally petty prizefight. However, when Tina Knowles, Bey’s mother, was interviewed by TMZ this week to discuss whether she is worried about the streamer’s style ahead of her daughter’s performance during the Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens game, Ms. Knowles stated she is sure the good lord will provide a solid, consistent connection.
“Everything will work out OK. Regarding her expectations for the game, which will be streamed live on Netflix from NRG Stadium in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston at 4:30 p.m. ET, Knowles stated, “God is going to be there.” The event will be Bey’s first live performance of songs from her critically acclaimed Cowboy Carter album, which topped the Top Country Albums list and gave the singer her eighth consecutive No. 1 LP on the Billboard 200.
Earlier this week, Netflix dropped a dramatic preview video of the special event featuring Beyoncé in which the singer was draped in red, white and blue Western gear and a white cowboy hat while standing on top of a tricked out vintage car covered in red roses. With an a cappella version of the Cowboy Carter song “AMERICAN REQUIEM” playing the background, Bey casually catches a football in the brief clip hyping the game.
NPR reported that a spokesperson said that Netflix is confident it has the infrastructure needed to prepare for the two games and is working to “optimize its systems and add more capacity” to make improvements based on lessons learned from the Tyson-Paul fight, including working with internet service providers to grows its “interconnection capabilities.”
According to The Wrap, Nexflix was sued this week in a class action complaint over the “streaming glitches” in the Tyson-Paul fight. “Sixty 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,’” read the lawsuit filed on Monday in the 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Hillsborough County, Florida.
Though the massive tune-in was deemed a success by Netflix, in a statement the streamer said there was room to do better, according to Bloomberg. “This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” Netflix CFO Elizabeth Stone reportedly wrote in a note to employees about the event that the streamer said racked up 65 million live concurrent streams and 108 million total live viewers around the globe.
“I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues,” she continued. “We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success.”
