Netflix’s ambitious foray into the festive NFL frenzy faced a fumble as the streaming heavyweight encountered technical troubles before kick-off on Christmas Day. The platform, which shelled out an eye-watering £120 million ($150m) for the rights to showcase two much-anticipated AFC clashes – Kansas City Chiefs vs Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans – stumbled when Kay Adams was meant to greet audiences with her opening monologue, only for the Netflix microphones to blast welcome music instead.
The Fanduel TV icon, known for her ‘Up and Adams’ show, was reduced to signalling Mahomes and Kelce’s entrance into Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh through mime.
However, the glitches didn’t end with the pre-game pageantry; even as game time approached at 1pm, the Netflix graphics erroneously indicated that the Steelers had a mere two timeouts at their disposal. In a replay of past woes, audio and delay issues also plagued Netflix during its mega-broadcast of Jake Paul’s bout with Mike Tyson last November.
This led to the premature cancellation of Evander Holyfield’s discussion with Kate Scott when sound slip-ups prevented the undisputed former heavyweight from hearing her queries, resulting in Scott having to gracefully apologize: “Evander, I apologize. I’m so sorry about the sound,” she admitted. “Lennox, thank you for helping us out with the interview. We appreciate you. Good to see you tonight. Good to see both of you champions with us tonight.”
Netflix‘s inaugural NFL broadcast encountered several audio hurdles, with both Adam’s microphone blunder and analyst Mina Kimes being cut off in favour of a ‘Squid Games 2’ advert as reported by the New York Post. Netflix had previously alerted viewers that help might be delayed due to the live event, acknowledging the surge in customer queries with a message: “Due to today’s live stream, wait time for live help may be longer than usual. We’re getting more customer requests than normal right now. Search our Help Center for answers or check back later.”
The streaming service brought a glittering line-up to its studio, flaunting talents like Adams, Kimes, ex-NFL MVP Drew Brees, former Heisman Trophy recipient Robert Griffin III, and Notre Dame icon Manti Te’o.
In the commentary box, Netflix combined voices from different networks creating an all-star cast. The Chiefs-Steelers game had CBS’s Ian Eagle teamed up with network colleagues Nate Burleson and J.J. Watt, despite the latter having minimal on-air experience.