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Was Netflix's big fight a fail?

Was Netflix's big fight a fail?

Viewership numbers might not be enough.

November 19, 2024

TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and Netflix is pulling out the big guns for its push into live entertainment. Move over, Jake Paul—Beyoncé is taking the stage.

Today’s News

🥊 Was the Paul vs. Tyson fight a success for Netflix?
👭 Sibling pairs make waves on YouTube Shorts
🥗 Salads, bombs, and podcasters top the branded charts
🗞️ Creators reshape the news industry
🔍 Ludwig digs into Twitch’s “adpocalypse”

FIGHT CLUB

Netflix’s Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight peaked at 65M concurrent viewers. Is that enough to call it a success?

The pros: There’s no denying that Netflix’s latest live offering was a record-breaking event. The fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul peaked at 65 million concurrent viewers—the most viewership Netflix has ever received from one of its live events.

According to the streamer, another 70,000 spectators delivered $18 million in total gate revenue by watching in-person at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas area. That number is the biggest gate figure for a U.S. boxing event outside of Las Vegas, and twice as big as the previous gate record for a combat sports event in Texas,

Netflix’s live show marked a milestone in women’s sports, too. The streamer says the co-main event (a rematch between super lightweights Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor) will “likely” go down as the most-watched women’s professional sporting event in U.S. history after peaking at nearly 50 million concurrent viewers.

The cons: Those superlatives suggest that the Paul vs. Tyson fight was a success—but millions of viewers had a less-than-positive experience. Fans pumped for an exciting fight tuned in to see Paul tiptoeing around an opponent more than twice his age before claiming a half-hearted victory. And those were the viewers who could actually see the fight: millions of others encountered technical issues which prevented them from watching at all.

The context: This isn’t the first time Netflix has struggled to handle an influx of live traffic. Back in April, more than six million viewers encountered constant broadcast interruptions while attempting to watch a Love Is Blind reality special. At the time, Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters attributed the issues to an overlooked bug.

Netflix hasn’t yet offered an explanation for its latest technical difficulties, leaving sports fans with a pressing question: will the streamer’s NFL Christmas Day slate be worth watching?

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Spotify just announced a major update—including a brand-new video monetization program, discovery tools, and more

Spotify just unveiled a new chapter in its story and an evolution of its podcasting platform: Spotify for Podcasters is now Spotify for Creators.

The official home of podcasting on Spotify offers a new monetization program for video podcasters, improved analytics and audience growth tools, and fresh discoverability opportunities.

Here are three ways to level up your content with Spotify for Creators:

1. Start monetizing with the Spotify Partner Program
With the Spotify Partner Program, you can earn through multiple revenue streams, including dynamic ads when free-tier users engage with your video, and audience-driven revenue when Premium users watch your videos uninterrupted. Apply now to start in January for eligible video shows in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

2. Get discovered with short-form video clips
Creators can now upload clips up to 90 seconds long directly to Spotify, where they’ll be recommended across the app and drive viewers directly to the full episodes.

3. Learn and grow with new analytics
Track episode performance based on the number of streams, hours watched, comments, and more. It’s all available on the new Spotify for Creators platform.

Ready to stand out with video on Spotify?

Learn more about Spotify for Creators →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

YouTube’s most-watched channel—aka Indian record label T-Series—finished nearly 150 million weekly views ahead of its closest competition in the second full week of November. (Tubefilter)
Amazon is facing a $58,000 fine from Turkey over a 2021 data breach that affected more than 35,000 Turkish citizens. (TechRadar)
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Brendan Carr—a Project 2025 contributor who has pushed to limit Section 230 protections—to serve as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. (TechCrunch)
In an effort to prioritize child safety, Roblox has announced that users under the age of 13 will “no longer be able to directly message others on Roblox outside of games or experiences.” (The Verge)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Creators are becoming news anchors. Why do viewers prefer them to mainstream outlets?

The trend: Since 2020, viewers have increasingly consulted creators as primary sources of news. That trend became clearer than ever during the 2024 “influencer election,” with Donald Trump giving nods to podcasters like Joe Rogan and streamers like Hasan Piker coming through as some of Election Day’s biggest news presenters.

The study: A new study from Pew Research Center offers valuable insights into viewers’ growing preference for creator-distributed news. The org surveyed over 10,000 U.S. adults and analyzed 500 individual news influencers across YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Here are the most significant stats from that study:

20% of U.S. adults overall and 37% of adults ages 18-29 say they regularly get news from creators on one or more of the aforementioned platforms.
Of people who regularly consult influencers for news, 70% say they do so because news from creators is “at least somewhat different from the news they get from other sources.”
66% of respondents said the opinions and context creators provide helps them better understand current events.

The takeaway: Previous data from Pew and Reuters indicate that more and more people are getting their news from creators because they want something different than content from TV news channels like CNN or Fox—including personal opinions about hot button issues. When Pew looked at content from 500 news creators, for instance, 55% of posts were about U.S. politics, the U.S. government, or the presidential election and another 18% were about major election issues like LGBTQ+ rights and abortion. For an undecided or uniformed constituent, a creator’s perspective could have played a deciding factor in their vote.

WATCH THIS 📺

What’s going on with Twitch? Ludwig has thoughts:

The context: If you’ve heard murmurings about an “adpocalypse” on Twitch, you’re not alone. In response to those rumors, streamer Ludwig went looking for YouTube videos to better understand what was going on with Twitch—and realized content on the subject was few and far between.

The deep-dive: So, he posted a video of his own. What the creator found is anecdotal, but troubling: multiple major streamers have reported seeing their ad revenue drop by 50% or more over the last month “as advertisers leave the platform due to controversial content” (that last bit comes from Dextero).

Ludwig’s suggestion for slowing down that “domino effect”: introducing an ad suitability system like YouTube’s, which includes multiple levels of moderation—from demonetization to lowered visibility to takedowns—instead of defaulting to bans.

Find out more about Ludwig’s take on the situation here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.