Beyoncé has decided to play into Netflix’s previous technology issues during a promotional video for her NFL Christmas Gameday halftime show.
The “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer will be performing at the halftime show during the Christmas Day NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium, in the Grammy winner’s hometown. To advertise the performance, Beyoncé shared a promotional video on both X (formerly Twitter) and in an Instagram post.
The video shows the “Halo” singer sitting on a football field as she strums the banjo. However, as she pulls down her sunglasses the screen immediately starts buffering, paying homage to previous issues the streaming service had when airing the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight back in November.
After buffering the video ends with the singer winking as the Netflix logo appears alongside the Ravens and Texans logos. “I’m sending you big joy and love on this Cowboy Christmas Eve,” Beyoncé captioned her Instagram post. “I’ll see y’all tomorrow, in my city HTX.”
Netflix even joined in on the joke as they commented underneath her X post, “now hold on…” They also changed their X bio to “roasted by beyoncé 12.24.24.”
The Texans vs Ravens game will start at 4:30 p.m. ET. This will mark the first time Beyoncé will be performing any songs from her Cowboy Carter album live since it was released in March.
The games are part of the three-season deal Netflix signed for $75 million for exclusive Christmas Day game rights. They will also be airing at least one NFL game on Christmas Day in 2025 and 2026 as part of the deal.
Throughout the Tyson and Paul fight many people turned to X to complain about how they had seen more buffering symbols on their screens than the fight itself.
“I’d love to watch this live but I’ve seen the buffering logo more than any of the fights,” one tweet read.
Fans were concerned about how Netflix was going to be able to handle their first year of broadcasting NFL games given their struggles airing the fight. Howard Stern specifically spoke about the buffering issues on his Sirius XM radio show.
“I don’t know how this stuff works, but you gotta make sure it works,” Stern said. “You f*** up people’s football, there is hell to pay. You better not.”
Shortly after the fight, Netflix’s Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone addressed the complaints, reportedly telling employees: “This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers.”
“I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues.”
“We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success,” the CTO concluded, noting that over 60 million viewers streamed the match.
In addition to the Ravens vs Texans game, Netflix will also be airing another game at 1 p.m. ET where the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
