Netflix’s Bela Bajaria Remains Bullish on Live Despite Tyson/Paul Hiccups, Says They’re Ready for the NFL — and More to Come in Global Territories

As Netflix expands its live output in a big way over the next few months, chief content officer Bela Bajaria said she wasn’t concerned about last weekend’s buffering hiccups during the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight. Speaking with reporters on Monday morning during Netflix’s International Showcase (more on that in a moment), Bajaria said the streamer felt “very ready” for its next big live event: Two NFL games on Christmas Day (including Beyoncé performing the halftime show during the second matchup, Houston v. Baltimore).

“We always knew we were going to do a really big thing,” Bajaria said of the Netflix engineering team, adding that the streamer immediately set about to fix issues. The buffering and freezing happened during earlier undercards, and it appeared that issues were mostly resolved by the time Tyson and Paul faced off.

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Asked if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed concerns after the fight, Bajaria quipped that he loved seeing “that Netflix can bring you a gigantic audience to a major sporting event.” Netflix reported over the weekend that it clocked 60 million households globally tuning in; it plans to release more specific data later this week.

Beyond the NFL, Netflix is also prepping for the arrival of the live, weekly “WWE Monday Night Raw,” which launches Jan. 6 on the streamer — with the first week taking place at the Inuit Dome in Inglewood. (Bajaria said she’s looking at potential companion programming on Netflix to promote to WWE fans — “Squid Game,” of course, will have just launched its Season 2 a few days earlier, on Dec. 26.) And later in 2025, comedian John Mulaney will host a live, weekly talk/variety show for Netflix — but Bajaria didn’t have any further updates on when that might launch.

Beyond that, Bajaria said she’s also looking to expand Netflix’s live footprint in other territories. There have been a few examples elsewhere, including a live “Love Is Blind” reunion show in Brazil. Bajaria said Netflix wanted to firm up its live strategy in the U.S. before expanding to other territories — but now she said “there’s amazing opportunities and great ideas. We’re going to figure out what that slate is.”

Bajaria was meeting with press to outline Netflix’s current strategy for non-English titles, sharing stats such as the fact that 80% of its customers watch Korean-originated content, and that more than 70% of its viewership watches programs that is either dubbed or subtitled. (Netflix, available in more than 190 countries, currently dubs in 36 languages and provides subtitles in 33 languages.)

“That’s not just great for audiences — it’s great for creators, too,” Bajaria said, “because it means their stories can have an even bigger impact in the world.”

In the U.S., Bajaria reported that 13% of hours consumed by Netflix viewers in the U.S. were on non-English fare, led by Korean, Spanish and Japanese programming.

Execs joining Bajaria on stage were Minyoung Kim (vice president of content, Asia Pacific region), Paco Ramos (vice president of content, Latin America region), Monika Shergill (vice president of content, India) and Larry Tanz (vice president of content, Europe, the Middle East and Africa).

Among the titles announced were the latest iteration of “Love Is Blind” (this time, “Love Is Blind: France”), as well as Korea’s “Physical 100: Asia” and a new untitled series from India’s Shah Rukh Khan, set inside the world of Bollywood and created/directed by Aryan Khan.

Bajaria and her team also highlighted additional upcoming projects including Italy’s “The Leopard,” Colombia’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Brazil’s “Senna,” Japan’s “Last Samurai Standing,” Spain’s “Alcaraz” and the Season 2 return of Korea’s megahit “Squid Game.”

“If you love Season 1, you’re definitely gonna love Season 2, and it creatively delivers on what people would want it to be,” Bajaria said.