Netflix and WWE nearly made it a whole month streaming Raw without any major technical hiccups, but that streak was broken on Monday night. Throughout the February 3rd episode, some viewers were annoyed by the feed intermittently cutting out to a black screen. Audio would also drop whenever these glitches occurred. The problems never caused the live feed to drop entirely — this wasn’t anything like the messy Jake Paul / Mike Tyson stream — but they were still a source of frustration for fans eager to see the fallout from Saturday’s Royal Rumble event.
WWE Raw debuted on Netflix in early January after spending decades as a staple of linear cable TV. The streamer has committed $5 billion over 10 years to secure WWE’s flagship weekly show. Outside the US, Netflix is now home to an even bigger WWE content portfolio that includes SmackDown, NXT, and the company’s monthly premium live events. So if these streams don’t go smoothly, fans are certain to notice.
Monday’s technical issues were most obvious during the main event, which pitted CM Punk against Sami Zayn. The Netflix logo remained visible during Raw’s blackouts, which led to speculation that the problems were coming directly from WWE’s live production feed in Cleveland. They remained present in immediate replays of the episode.
الحافة has reached out to WWE for comment on what caused the brief interruptions. Netflix raised the price of its monthly subscriptions last month, bringing its ad-supported tier up to $7.99 per month, the standard ad-free plan to $17.99, and the premium tier to $24.99 per month.
