SI

The Truth About Netflix and Sports Isn’t Good for Sports Fans

Netflix’s presentation of the NFL on Christmas Day could be a disaster and there’s nothing fans can do.

Jimmy Traina

Netflix gets into the NFL world on Christmas Day.
Netflix gets into the NFL world on Christmas Day. / Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC

1. Full disclosure: I didn’t see one second of the Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight on Netflix on Friday night. If you listened to the latest episode of the SI Media Podcast, you heard Tony Romo ask me at the very end of our interview who I thought was going to win and my exact quote, which you can hear below, was, “You couldn’t pay me to watch that fight.”

Even if I wanted to watch the fight, it wasn’t happening because I’m old and was asleep by 10:30 p.m. on Friday. However, when I woke up Saturday and checked Twitter, I saw endless tweets about 1) the fight being an embarrassment and 2) Netflix having all sorts of streaming issues.

I won’t brag about being vindicated for my take on the fight. I’ll just focus on streaming and Netflix.

The biggest fallout from Netflix's production issues for the lackluster fight is that the platform is set to stream two NFL games on Christmas Day. More importantly, it'll be two very good games with the Chiefs visiting the Steelers at 1 p.m. ET and the Ravens visiting the Texans at 4:30 p.m ET.

So, what was Netflix’s reaction to not giving its viewers a clean broadcast on Friday?

“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 CTO Elizabeth Stone wrote to employees, according to Bloomberg reporter, Mark Gurman. “I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues.

“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.”

So, the fight sucked, the broadcast was filled with technical issues and Netflix considered the event a huge success. You know why Netflix considered the event a huge success? Because it already has your money and there’s nothing you can do about a poor presentation.

You as the consumer have one option: cancel your Netflix subscription. But the reality is, nobody is going to do that because of Friday's technical issues. What else are you going to do? Call Netflix and demand a refund? Good luck with that.

When it comes to the NFL games on Christmas Day, Netflix has little motivation to give you a clean broadcast. Netflix already has your money and if there is mass buffering issues during the Chiefs-Steelers game, you’re going to complain about it on Twitter and do nothing else.

Nobody is going to cancel Netflix if there are issues with one-off NFL broadcasts because most people subscribe for movies and TV shows. Netflix has more than 280 million subscribers. Do you know how many people would have to cancel their subscriptions for Netflix to feel any ramifications for giving you a broadcast filled with technical problems?

Netflix isn’t like cable. If you don’t like your cable company, you switch cable companies or you cancel cable to subscribe to a satellite service or you cancel cable altogether and just go straight to streaming.

But Netflix doesn’t face a real threat of people canceling en masse if the Christmas Day NFL telecasts aren’t A+ in quality.

NFL fans will be pissed and they will be vocal, but the truth is they will be at the mercy of Netflix on Dec. 25 with absolutely no recourse, other than sending tweets, if there’s buffering, technical difficulties or any other disaster.

2. Our long national nightmare of Inside the NBA going away appears to be over. The news broke Saturday night that the show will remain as is and continue next season with Warner Bros. Discovery licensing the show to ESPN.

While this is outstanding news, it does lead to many questions. What happens to all the people who work on ESPN’s current NBA pregame show? Can Stephen A. Smith shoehorn his way into the Inside the NBA? Does this affect Stephen A. Smith’s negotiations for a new contract with ESPN?

If the EXACT current version of Inside the NBA continues as is with the only difference being that it airs on ESPN instead of TNT, this a monstrous win for ESPN.

For years, ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth had issues. ESPN fixed that by bringing in Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

For many, many, many years, ESPN’s NBA pre- and postgame shows haven’t connected with viewers. Now that problem is fixed.

This is the rare case where this is a win for everybody involved—ESPN, WBD, the NBA and NBA.

3. You know what has not gotten the attention it deserves in the NFL world? The Bills adopting Mr. Brightside as their theme song. Love this scene from their sidelines after Josh Allen’s bonkers TD run to seal Buffalo’s win against the Chiefs.

4. I would love it if one person at Fox could explain to me why they think this was a good idea.

5. If you missed it on Saturday, there was a great moment on ESPN’s College GameDay when Pat McAfee decided to give away $800,000 for his weekly field goal challenge. What a performance from Henry!

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features an interview with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.

CBS’s lead NFL broadcast team talks about working together now for eight seasons, their chemistry, their preference to do a conversational broadcast, criticism Romo has faced in recent years and why they think they are having their best season ever in the booth.

Other topics discussed with Nantz and Romo include what it was like to call the Jayden Daniels Hail Mary, the Cowboys’ demise, the upcoming NFL schedule, the Lions becoming a super power and much more.

Following Nantz and Romo, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss Jerry Seinfeld’s surprise phone call to WFAN, attending Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s 65th birthday party, Aaron Rodgers getting duped by a fake tweet and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: On this date 32 years ago, four friends decided to engage in a contest.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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