Netflix’s NFL coverage gets off to a rough start with several blunders

Netflix committed several flubs in the opening minutes of its NFL coverage.

While the streaming quality of its pregame show is so far holding up after problems during last month’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, Wednesday’s Christmas broadcast began with silence as Kay Adams kicked things off, her microphone apparently not on during the opening around 10 seconds.

Several minutes later, while Mina Kimes was in the middle of the conversation, Netflix cut an ad for Squid Games Season 2.

The pregame show then returned as if nothing had happened.

Netflix today begins its first live NFL broadcast with a two-hour pregame show leading up to the Chiefs vs. Steelers at 1 p.m. and Ravens vs. Texans at 4:30 p.m

The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix paid $150 million for the two games, and the streamer will get at least one holiday game each of the next two seasons.

Concerns were raised about how Wednesday’s broadcasts would go after widespread problems during the Paul-Tyson boxing match, with many of the roughly 60 million announced viewers experiencing buffering problems.

The NFL came away from talks with Netflix “assured” that Netflix knew what went wrong and that the issues would be resolved by Christmas, ESPN reported last month.

While traffic on the stream will likely increase greatly once the Chiefs and Steelers kick off, the streaming quality held up well early on during the pregame show.

But the other technical problems hit the wrong first impression.