### The Battle Over Viewer Metrics: Netflix vs. Fox Sports

The recent Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Friday night has ignited a dispute beyond the boxing ring, pitting traditional media against new technological platforms. In a press release, Netflix claimed that 60 million households watched the main event. This statement has raised eyebrows in the industry, with Fox Sports president of insights and analytics, Mike Mulvihill, voicing skepticism.

According to Mulvihill, via Sports Business Journal, Nielsen, the reputable audience measurement firm, is entirely capable of providing U.S.-only viewership statistics for Netflix the following day. However, he points out that Netflix hasn't sought such data. Mulvihill implied that Netflix might prefer to share global numbers unchallenged, as they face less scrutiny online.

We reported Netflix's figures, emphasizing that they didn't follow the traditional average-per-minute audience measurement. This method is widely recognized for assessing viewership. Mulvihill implies that Netflix's numbers might be misleading. He suggests questioning whether each attempt to reload the stream was counted as a separate view.

Mulvihill stresses that genuine viewership comparisons can only be made with Nielsen data. Without third-party verification, he alludes to a situation where Netflix might have too much control over the reported numbers.