by Thinus Ferreira
Netflix has been taken to court in a class-action lawsuit over the video streaming service's "unwatchable" and botched live-stream fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson that the streamer claims over 60 million users tried to watch on Sunday morning.
Ronald "Blue" Denton of Florida in the United States, has filed a lawsuit, according to media in the United States, seeking unspecified monetary damages and class-action status on behalf of all Netflix users who were affected by the streamer's botched live-stream.
According to Ronald Denton, Netflix was "woefully ill-prepared" to do the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight.
Thousands of people worldwide, including South Africa, complained that they couldn't watch it and joked about Netflix's buffering and live-stream implosion which was also marred by other technical mistakes and problems.
According to the lawsuit "60 million Americans were hyped to see 'Iron' Mike Tyson, 'The Baddest Man on the Planet' versus YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was The Baddest Streaming on the Planet".
"Netflix customers experienced massive streaming issues and should have known better because it’s happened before," the lawsuit states.
It is in reference to April 2023 when Netflix did its first major live event which was a Love Is Blind reunion live-stream which suffered massive delays due to various technical problems.
It only became available on Netflix 19 hours later as a recording.
According to the lawsuit, "there were over 100 000 people complaining online with boxing fans, along with the average American who wanted to see a legend in what would most likely be his last fight, but faced with legendary problems, including: no access, streaming glitches and buffering issues".
"Instead of providing the programming its viewers pay for every month, Netflix was completely unprepared and unable to fix the issues."
Many South Africans complained about Netflix's crashed stream.
Anele Mdoda told Netflix South Africa "I'm sending you okes my subscription money in phases next month. Going to buffer it across the month".
Peter Ndoro said "Unbelievable! Netflix sets up this big fight Tyson Paul and doesn't prepare for the huge online demand and now we are struggling to see it.What a mess!! Netflix, stick to movies!"