Netflix Sued After Traffic Surge From ‘Squid Game’
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Netflix is being sued by a South Korean broadband company over the traffic surge to watch Squid Game.
Netflix has produced some absolute whoppers over the years: Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Witcher, Money Heist, The Queen’s Gambit and Sex Education, among others. Yet, it may have landed its most popular show yet with Squid Game, a Korean dystopian survival series topping the streaming platform’s charts across the world.
In the blink of an eye, it’s suddenly on the tip of everyone’s tongues. In South Korea, the demand to watch it is so rife that it’s putting immense strain on broadband providers.
Internet service provider SK Broadband has filed a lawsuit against Netflix after the show allegedly caused a surge in traffic. The firm believes Netflix should ‘reasonably’ assist financially with the increased network traffic and maintenance work, Reuters reports.
Other South Korean providers have also criticised the current arrangement with Netflix and other content producers who don’t pay for network usage despite shows like Squid Game causing unpredictable spikes of traffic.
‘We will review the claim that SK Broadband has filed against us. In the meantime, we continue to seek open dialogue and explore ways of working with SK Broadband in order to ensure a seamless streaming experience for our shared customers,’ a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
The platform’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently spoke about the success of the show, noting it was number one ‘like everywhere in the world’ and it’ll be Netflix’s ‘biggest non-English language show in the world, for sure.’ He also said there’s ‘a very good chance it’s going to be our biggest show ever.’
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Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Now, South Korea, Squid Game
