Netflix’s (NFLX) live event efforts took a major hit on Sunday night after the company failed to air its live reunion special ‘Love is Blind’ – but the streaming giant says now that there is a reason for it.
“We are truly sorry to have disappointed so many people,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday.
Peters explained that the platform has the fundamental infrastructure to successfully host a live event, but recently introduced “a bug” following last month’s Chris Rock live special, which spoiled the broadcast.
“We just haven’t seen this bug in internal testing,” Peters said, noting that the update was aimed at improving live streaming performance. “We hate when these things happen, but we’ll learn from it and get better.”
Thousands of users angrily expressed their frustrations on Twitter after waiting more than an hour for the episode to air on Sunday night. The episode was eventually released Monday afternoon. Peters revealed that around 6.5 million viewers tuned in to watch.
“We said we wanted to use live where it makes creative sense and helps the content itself,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos added. “A reunion show that’s going to generate news and buzz really plays best live when people can enjoy it together.”
Sarandos hinted that there will likely be more live events around unscripted programming and said that although around 90% of viewing of the Chris Rock special occurred after the airing of the live event, “that doesn’t change the fact that it was a big event when it happened live.”
Still, analysts have warned that consumers won’t easily forgive live event slip-ups, especially when they involve their favorite shows.
“(What happened on Sunday night) is definitely not good when a player like Netflix is really trying to grow subscribers,” Jamie Lumley, industry analyst at Third Bridge Group, told Yahoo Finance on Monday. Live. “There is still work to be done to figure out exactly how to make a live event transparent, efficient and a good way to attract viewers.”
Netflix reported mixed first-quarter results on Tuesday, missing Wall Street subscriber estimates while beating analysts’ earnings-per-share expectations.
The stock, which initially fell 12% after the release, saw shares pare losses as investors digested the report – the first since co-CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings stepped down from his role as leader within the company.
The results came as investors eagerly awaited updates regarding the company’s recently launched ad-supported tier, in addition to its controversial crackdown on password sharing.
Netflix, which has expanded its crackdown to include countries like Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain, in addition to test countries Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, has revealed it plans “a broad rollout” this quarter that will include the US
Minimal details have been revealed regarding pricing for additional members, with executives saying it will be on a market-by-market basis.
Alexandra Channel is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com
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