Beyoncé performed live at halftime of the NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on December 25, 2024.

Julian Dakdouk

Hide caption

Toggle label

Julian Dakdouk

Sports fans who watched Netflix’s groundbreaking streaming broadcast of two NFL games on Wednesday may have initially felt a bit of unsettling déjà vu.

That’s because this pivotal event – which marks the entry of the industry’s largest streaming service into the blockbuster business of professional football – began with audio problems in the first moments of host Kay Adams’ opening presentation.

It was a worrying look back at the problems Netflix had with its last major live event, November’s boxing match YouTube star Jake Paul and former champion Mike Tyson as viewers struggled with blurry audio and were regularly locked out of the livestream.

Luckily, Adams’ sound issues were quickly resolved, allowing Netflix to come up with a two-game programming event that felt like the streaming service’s version of the Super Bowl — complete with a lavishly produced halftime show for the second game featuring pop superstar Beyoncé could stand up to any big game presentation.

In fact, the actual football games may have been the least impressive part of the big Netflix day, as Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-10 in the first game and the Baltimore Ravens dominated the Houston Texans home opener for the second contest, 31-2.

Wednesday’s Netflix show got off to a rocky start due to audio issues with host Kay Adams.

Netflix

Hide caption

Toggle label

Netflix

By staffing its teams of anchors and commentators with experienced broadcasters, Netflix delivered a largely seamless visual presentation with plenty of sparkling graphics and all the information fans needed to follow the game. The connectivity issues that plagued the Tyson-Paul fight seemed largely non-existent, at least to this viewer, especially when watching the matches on slightly delayed playback.

Accordingly NetflixMore than 200 countries tuned in to Chiefs vs. Steelers at some point during the contest, making it the streaming service’s second most popular live title.

Therefore, it makes sense that the streamer would take the opportunity to include plenty of references to other Netflix properties, including a Pre-match interview with WWE wrestler Liv Morgan to trigger the debut of WWE Raw live events next month and realistic-looking football-shaped cakes to tie in with the streamer’s game show Is it cake?

There were also plenty of commercials that seemed to run even to subscribers with ad-free plans. However, if you watched the games on replay, you could skip them.

But the full games premiered on Netflix three hours after the event; Two programs featuring highlights from each game will be available to watch on-demand, and the streamer says Beyoncé’s halftime show will also be offered as a standalone rewatch program.

Queen Bey, a Houston native, certainly brought the fire to her hometown for what the streamer dubbed the “Beyoncé Bowl” halftime show. Performance of songs from their album Cowboy Carter For the first time — including her renditions of “Jolene” and “Blackbird” — she was a vision in white and sequins, backed by a cavalcade of dancers in white cowboy hats and top collaborators like Post Malone and Shaboozey. Even her daughter Blue Ivy showed up.

Beyoncé’s epic live performance lasted more than 13 minutes, easily surpassing Mariah Carey’s pre-recorded performances before each game. He also proved that Netflix could muster the production value and visuals to rival any Super Bowl performer.

That was ultimately the most important point of the entire day – proof that the streaming service is ready to compete with the big dogs of broadcasting by offering trouble-free live NFL games to a subscriber base of more than 282 million accounts.

Netflix isn’t the only streamer offering live NFL games. Amazon’s Prime Video offers Thursday Night Football and Peacock also offers live broadcasts of some NFL games. But Netflix, as the largest and most profitable streaming service, has a symbolic and significant influence when it comes to a certain type of programming.

With his plans to stream WWE Raw live events from next month And a new deal To cover the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Netflix is ​​turning to an area of ​​TV streaming services that hasn’t yet been dominated: live sports.

What this ultimately means for the future of television – and sports media – we may just be beginning to learn.