NFL's Netflix debut on Christmas Day kicked off without a glitch

Mariah Carey opened with a taped rendition of “All I Want for Christmas is You,” followed by Patrick Mahomes, Travis Colts and the two-time Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs against Russell Wilson, T.J. Watt and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In Game 2, the Houston Texans will host the Baltimore Ravens, and the NFL will feature four of the top five teams in the AFC.

Netflix signed a three-year deal in May to broadcast the Christmas Day games. The streaming platform expects one of its biggest days since it launched in 1998.

With 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries, Netflix will broadcast the games in five languages ​​— English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German — making it the first time a single platform has been available to stream NFL games globally.

Netflix had problems streaming the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on Nov. 14. The fight peaked at 65 million concurrent viewers, including 38 million in the United States. According to Down Detector, nearly 85,000 people experienced outages or streaming issues.

But there were no signs of any problems with the games on Wednesday, although there was a minor glitch in the pregame show before the game began. The broadcast began with about 10 seconds of silence because studio host Kay Adams’ microphone appeared to be off.

The biggest test likely will be the Ravens-Texans first half, when Beyoncé will perform live at NRG Stadium in Houston.

According to NFL Media, viewers in all 50 states tuned in within minutes of the pregame show airing, and viewers in nearly 200 countries around the world tuned in to watch the game online before kickoff.

The NFL is playing its first games on a Wednesday since the Steelers and Ravens were forced to play on December 2, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The only other time the league has played on a Wednesday was in 2012, when the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys met in the season opener.

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