Inside Netflix’s Push to Stream Live Events

Summary

Podcast Summary: Inside Netflix’s Push to Stream Live Events

WSJ Tech News Briefing | January 20, 2026
Host: Peter Ciampelli | Guests: Ben Fritz, Isabel Busquette

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Episode Overview

This episode of the WSJ Tech News Briefing explores two timely tech topics:

1. How Matthew McConaughey is using broad trademarks to battle AI-generated deepfakes and protect his likeness.
2. Netflix’s ambitious push into live streaming—its technical hurdles, major broadcasts, and future plans—detailed through exclusive interviews with Netflix executives and reporting by Isabel Busquette.

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1. Matthew McConaughey and the Fight Against AI Deepfakes (00:18–04:25)

Key Discussion Points

• Celebrity Deepfakes on the Rise:
  The proliferation of AI tools has led to more celebrity deepfakes, compelling high-profile figures like Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift, and now Matthew McConaughey to seek new legal protections.

• McConaughey’s Trademark Strategy:

  • McConaughey registered eight very broad trademarks encompassing his image, voice, and even famous catchphrases.
  • Quote:

    “One is of him basically looking at the camera in front of a Christmas tree. Another... him standing out on a porch. And then a few... of him talking, including one where he says his famous line from Dazed and Confused.”
    (Ben Fritz, 01:18–01:33)

  • The aim: Use these trademarks to curb the spread of unauthorized AI fakes, especially where existing state “right of publicity” laws fall short—particularly with “gray area” content straddling creative and commercial uses online.

• Legal Uncertainty:

  • Trademarks could grant access to federal court, but it’s largely untested whether such broad marks on a person’s likeness can be enforced.
  • Quote:

    “It’s untested to have such a broad trademark on a human being... if somebody decides to fight them about it and it goes to a federal court, they’re not sure how a judge is going to rule but they want to try.”
    (Ben Fritz, 02:27–02:46)

• Limits of Trademark Protection:

  • Trademarks mainly apply to commercial uses. Creative fan-made content with no ads would be hard to stop, but outright commercial misappropriation (e.g., a fake McConaughey promoting a product) would be illegal.
  • Quote:

    “If you create a fake version of Matthew McConaughey who's advertising the new McDonald's value meal, clearly that would be illegal. And there’s a lot of stuff in the middle between those and that gray area is where actors are concerned.”
    (Ben Fritz, 03:19–03:35)

• Widespread Concern, Ongoing Push for Federal Legislation:
  McConaughey is the first actor with these trademarks for this purpose, but many industry figures want clearer federal rules.

Notable Quotes

• “All right, all right, all right.” (Peter Ciampelli, 01:33)
• “Many, many actors and musicians are very concerned about AI fakes.” (Ben Fritz, 03:57–04:03)

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2. Inside Netflix’s Live Streaming Ambitions (05:16–10:30)

Key Discussion Points

The New Streaming Battleground (05:16–06:18)

• Major Players:
  YouTube, Amazon Prime, and other streamers are also racing to dominate live event streaming.

• A Difficult Technical Feat:
  Delivering live events at broadcast TV scale—reliably, over the open Internet—is far tougher than standard on-demand streaming.

  Quote:

  “They're all realizing that the technology needed to deliver live events, live streaming, over the Internet to millions of people... is a really hard thing to do.”
  (Isabel Busquette, 05:46–06:18)

Netflix’s Biggest Challenge: The Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Fight (06:18–07:10)

• Overwhelmed by Demand:
  The November 2024 boxing event attracted 65 million viewers—far beyond Netflix’s previous record.

• System Strain:
  Glitches and outages plagued the broadcast as users repeatedly logged in and out, compounding stress on Netflix’s infrastructure.

  Quote:

  “People logged out and then were trying to log back in because they thought that would make it easier. But that actually put more stress on Netflix’s systems.”
  (Isabel Busquette, 06:56–07:10)

Recent Successes and Current Operations (07:10–07:41)

• Over 200 Live Events and Counting:
  Netflix’s acquisition of WWE Monday Night rights provided weekly live streaming practice—typically spending less strain than special mega-events.
• Smooth Execution at Moderate Scale:
  The company now capably handles audiences up to 40 million for recurring broadcasts.

Why Streaming Live is Harder Than TV (07:41–09:35)

• TV vs. Internet:

  • TV uses closed, operator-controlled networks; internet streaming deals with unpredictable public networks and shared bandwidth.

• Technical Workflow:

  • Your device requests the stream from the nearest “Netflix appliance” (a local server).
  • Each unique session is optimized for the user’s device and connection quality.
  • The biggest challenge: unpredictable demand, geographic spikes, and technical uncertainty in a field new to Netflix.

  Quote:

  “When you’re trying to do something over the open Internet, it’s a totally different ballgame... you sort of get around it by pre planning, but there’s only so much pre planning you can do when you’re sort of entering a new domain.”
  (Isabel Busquette, 08:25–08:59)

What’s Next for Netflix? (09:35–10:30)

• International Expansion:
  Netflix aims to host more global live events, starting with a skyscraper-scaling stunt in Taipei.

• Enhanced Monitoring:
  Their California live event operations center will soon be joined by new centers in the UK and Asia, designed to enable real-time problem tracking and management across time zones.

  Quote:

  “They're actually gearing up to open two more live operations centers. One is going to be in the UK and one is going to be in Asia, and that's where they're looking to handle more international events from.”
  (Isabel Busquette, 10:11–10:26)

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

| Time | Segment/Quote | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:33 | “All right, all right, all right.” – Peter Ciampelli, referencing McConaughey’s classic line | | 05:46 | “They're all realizing that the technology needed to deliver live events... is a really hard thing to do.” – Isabel Busquette | | 06:56 | “People logged out and ... that actually put more stress on Netflix’s systems.” – Isabel Busquette| | 08:25 | “When you're trying to do something over the open Internet, it's a totally different ball game.” – Isabel Busquette | | 10:11 | “...gearing up to open two more live operations centers. One in the UK and one in Asia...” – Isabel Busquette |

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Episode Takeaways

• Celebrity IP Law is Rapidly Evolving:
  With AI deepfakes proliferating, high-profile actors are testing new legal strategies like broad trademarks to protect likeness, but legal precedent is unclear.

• Live Streaming = The Last Streaming Frontier:
  As Netflix and rivals rush to capture live event audiences, surging demand reveals the unique complexities and infrastructure demands of internet broadcasts.

• Netflix’s Status:
  The company has learned from missteps, gained reliability at moderate scale, and is now poised to internationalize its live offerings—with a major technical focus on agility and speed of response.

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For listeners interested in the shifting dynamics of intellectual property law, the challenges of live video delivery, or the future of streaming media, this episode offers an inside look at the stakes and hurdles facing both celebrities and Silicon Valley titans alike.

Transcript

[Goldman Sachs Markets Podcast Host]

What's driving the markets this week? What's on investors minds as they look ahead? Find out in 10 minutes or less on the markets podcast from Goldman Sachs. Listen now.

[Peter Ciampelli]

Welcome to Tech News briefing. It's Tuesday, January 20th. I'm Peter Champelli for the Wall Street Journal. Celebrities like Tom Hanks and Taylor Swift have been the subject of AI deepfakes. As generative tools have got more and more popular. Matthew McConaughey is trying a new strategy, trademarking himself. Then Netflix has cemented itself as an entertainment heavyweight with its recent bid for Warner Bros. Discovery and its $5 billion deal with World Wrestling Entertainment. But does the company have what it takes to dominate the next frontier in Internet stream? But first, Matthew McConaughey, the star of movies like Interstellar, Magic Mike and the classic Dazed and Confused, has had eight trademark applications approved which he plans to use to fight AI misuse. To break this down, we spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz. Ben, what exactly are these trademarks that Matthew McConaughey registered?

[Ben Fritz]

Well, they're very vague general trademarks. One is of him basically looking at the camera in front of a Christmas tree. Another one is him standing out on a porch. And then a few are of him talking, including one where he says his famous line from Dazed and Confused.

[Peter Ciampelli]

All right, all right, all right.

[Ben Fritz]

They're meant to be really big in general so that his attorneys can they hope use them to fight any and all unauthorized AI fakes of him.

[Interviewer]

And so what do these trademarks protect? How would he use these against what kind of videos or products?

[Ben Fritz]

Well, the intention is he could potentially use them against anything that is unauthorized. And he is upset about there are already are laws in states called right of publicity which he could use if somebody tried to use an AI fake of him to sell a product. But the law gets a lot murkier with videos that are sort of creative but sort of commercial, which describes so much on the Internet. Basically anything you put on YouTube that has ads, for example, you know, it's both commercial and creative. So the right of publicity may not apply. And it's also that's not federal and they would like to be able to take people to federal court and therefore have any ruling apply nationwide. So that's why they're trying this trademark approach. But they fully admit that this is, it's untested to have such a broad trademark on a human being. And if somebody decides to fight them about it and it goes to a federal court, they're not sure how a judge is going to rule but they want to try.

[Interviewer]

In your piece, you mentioned that these trademarks might not protect some forms of AI content that circulates because they mostly affect commercial work. Can you explain the difference between that and explain what kind of complications that might represent with the trademarks?

[Ben Fritz]

Sure. If you put up something that has no commercial value whatsoever, there's no advertisements on it, it's not selling anything, and you can make the case that it's an interesting creative work that you've made and it's not likely to confuse anybody in a meaningful way about what Matthew McConaughey is doing, that you're just doing it for fun. They would have a very hard time exercising these trademarks. On the far other end, if you create a fake version of Matthew McConaughey who's advertising the new McDonald's value meal, clearly that would be illegal and there's a lot of stuff in the middle between those and that gray area is where actors are concerned. His lawyers want to try to exercise his trademarks and we'll see what the courts say.

[Interviewer]

Are there other actors or performers considering these types of ways to push back against AI video generation?

[Ben Fritz]

Matthew McConaughey is, as far as I can tell, the first actor in the US who's had trademarks like this approved and for this purpose. But many, many actors and musicians are very concerned about AI fakes. And we've seen tons of examples of them. And people like Tom Hanks and Taylor Swift have spoken out publicly when they've seen AI fakes created of them. And there's a big push by the actors and performers unions and Hollywood media companies to get federal legislation that would help clarify these issues.

[Peter Ciampelli]

That was Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz. Coming up, Netflix wants to reinvent live tv. But why is it so challenging? That's after the break.

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[Peter Ciampelli]

In 2022, streaming giant Netflix made big changes in order to keep growing their subscriber base. They cracked down on password sharing and introduced more tiers and they expanded into sports and live events. Wall Street Journal reporter Isabel Busquette joins us to discuss her exclusive interview with Netflix's CTO and other executives. Isabel, who are Netflix's main competitors when.

[Interviewer]

It comes to streamers handling live broadcasts.

[Peter Ciampelli]

And how does their strategy compare to those competitors?

[Isabel Busquette]

You're seeing a lot of the streamers do this now, right? You're seeing YouTube making a deal to stream the Academy Awards. You're seeing Amazon Prime. They have a big deal with the NBA. This is an area that all the streamers are sort of moving into. But at the same time, none of them are having an easy job with this. They're all realizing that the technology needed to deliver live events, live streaming, over the Internet to millions of people. The same level of audiences that would watch on traditional TV is a really hard thing to do.

[Interviewer]

So the streamer has had some ups and downs with its live broadcasts. What was the live event that posed the biggest challenge for Netflix?

[Isabel Busquette]

That was definitely the Jake Paul, Mike Tyson boxing match that happened in November 2024. It wasn't their first event. They had had a few events before that. Some had gone okay, some had been a little glitchy, but they went into that feeling good. But what happened was there were just so many more viewers for that than they ever could have anticipated. Suddenly, they were handling 65 million concurrent viewers, and that was just more than they ever thought they would have to deal with. So, you know, a lot of people struggled to access the stream. It was glitching, it was slowing down. People logged out and then were trying to log back in because they thought that would make it easier. But that actually put more stress on Netflix's systems.

[Interviewer]

Have they had anything on the flip side, any major successes with live streaming?

[Isabel Busquette]

They have done more than 200 live events at this point, and that includes weekly. They bought the rights to the WWE Monday night broadcast, so they've been doing that. A lot of these are fairly seamless, but also not attracting an insane peak level of viewership. But they've gotten pretty good, pretty well practiced at the type of events where, like, 20, 30, maybe 40 million people tune in.

[Interviewer]

Your breakdown of the technical obstacles that come with live streaming over the Internet was really fascinating. Why is this more complicated than traditional TV broadcasting? And how does Netflix work through those bugs?

[Isabel Busquette]

With traditional TV operators, they basically have their own closed networks. So they have the signal from the live event and they push that out across their own network. And that can only get picked up by the receivers in their network. So, you know, that goes to someone's home via antenna via cable box, and then you get it on your tv. And so they own that network, they operate that network, and they don't have to Worry about competing for capacity with other signals on that network. When you're trying to do something over the open Internet, it's a totally different ball game. So the way that Netflix streams content basically is that if you're trying to watch Netflix, your device, be it a laptop, a tablet, a phone, will send a request to a nearby Netflix appliance that'll basically be in a data center, hopefully one close by, because the closer it is, the sooner the stream will get to you, the less laggy it'll be. And then once that appliance receives the request, it will initiate what they call a session. And so it has to handle as many sessions as it has viewers. And each session might be optimized differently depending on what kind of dev you're on and also how good your Internet connection is at that time. It's just a huge challenge for them. Like, they can sort of get around it by pre planning, but there's only so much pre planning you can do when you're sort of entering a new domain. This is something they don't have a huge history in doing. So it's hard for them to know, like, how many people in what geography might be tuning in for this.

[Interviewer]

And did the executives that you talk to speak to what's next for Netflix?

[Isabel Busquette]

Netflix feels really good about where it is now. It's made a lot of improvements over the years, and now what's next is they're looking to do more international events. So they will be doing a stream later this month of somebody scaling a skyscraper in Taipei, which is terrifying to be watching live, but I'll be tuning in. And they have now a live events operations center in their headquarters in California, which is where they can sort of monitor how things are going in real time, jump on any issues as quickly as possible. And so this year, they're actually gearing up to open two more live operations centers. One is going to be in the UK and one is going to be in Asia, and that's where they're looking to handle more international events from.

[Peter Ciampelli]

That was Wall Street Journal reporter Isabel Bousquet. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producers Katie Ferguson and Melanie Royce.

[Goldman Sachs Markets Podcast Host]

Peter.

[Peter Ciampelli]

I'm Peter Ciampelli for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back later this morning with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.

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