A Florida man has filed a class-action lawsuit against Netflix over the poor streaming quality that affected millions during the widely viewed boxing match between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and YouTube personality Jake Paul.
It is just one of many controversial developments that have followed Paul’s beatdown of his 58-year-old opponent.
Netflix was torched by fans around the world when its broadcast suffered a series of technical failings.
Now Ronald “Blue” Denton, a resident of Hillsborough County, Florida, alleges that the streaming giant was guilty of breach of contract over the frequent glitches, according to TMZ.
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The class-action lawsuit filed in Florida state court is seeking damages of at least $50 million, The New York Post reports.
“60 million Americans were hyped to see ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ versus Youtuber-turner-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was ‘The Baddest Streaming on Planet,’” the lawsuit claims.
It was alleged that many viewers missed portions of the fight due to the interruptions.
“Netflix customers experienced massive streaming issues and should have known better because it’s happened before. They were woefully ill-prepared,” according to the lawsuit.
During the bout, many viewers took to social media to express their frustrations with streaming and buffering problems before and during the fight.
According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to the fight.
The bout was scheduled for eight two-minute rounds, as opposed to the normal three minutes and 10 or 12 rounds for most pro fights.
Paul won the fight by unanimous decision.
Netflix said Saturday that the bout was watched by a worldwide audience of 60 million and peaked at 65 million concurrent streams.
It said nearly 50 million households were turned in for the co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in which Taylor kept her undisputed super lightweight championship with another disputed decision.
Netflix said it would provide additional viewership information, including total viewers, this coming week.
The bout between the YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, and Tyson, 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was Netflix’s biggest live sports event to date, and an opportunity to make sure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon.
It streamed globally to Netflix’s 280 million subscribers at no additional cost.
Netflix earlier this week did respond to the swirling outrage.
“This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritising stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone wrote to employees, according to Bloomberg.
“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.”
Netflix’s streaming issues are notable since the company is 토토사이트 set to air an NFL double-header on Christmas — Chiefs vs. Steelers and the Ravens vs. Texans.
There have also been countless public complaints about the quality of the fight with Paul even admitting he deliberately chose not to knock Tyson out when he was dominating the fight in the later rounds.
It continued a difficult night for the streaming giant, with both Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and boxing legend Evander Holyfield suffering technical failures during the incredibly long build-up to the main event.
In the fight itself, Tyson barely threw a punch as his ageing body couldn’t keep up with his hopes of a dream knockout.
At the end of the eight-round fight, over shortened two-minute rounds, Paul was credited with 978 punches thrown to Tyson’s 278, landing 78 to just 18 for the Hall of Famer.
Fans this week accused the fighters of having fixed the result.
One piece of footage from the fight has been spreading across cyberspace in recent days with some claiming the vision showed Tyson went easy on his opponent.
A 10-second clip from the middle of the third round was posted to social media which shows Tyson appearing to load up a thunderous right hook as Paul’s left glove dropped down, leaving his jaw exposed.
But instead of landing what could have been the killer blow, Tyson pulled his punch as Paul moved his head out of harms way.