Netflix is planning to provide plenty of gifts for viewers of its two Christmas Day games, including Mariah Carey kicking it all off with a taped performance of "All I Want for Christmas is You."

Yet, Netflix executive Brandon Riegg realizes it all amounts to a lump of coal if there are streaming problems.

Riegg, vice president of nonfiction series and sports, has had to answer plenty of questions about the streaming giant's readiness for the influx of viewers on what could be its biggest day ever, especially after streaming problems during the Nov. 14 fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.

"The sheer tonnage of people that came to watch was incredible. And for all the testing that the engineering team had done ahead of that, and I think they're the best in the business, the only way to test something of that magnitude is to have something of that magnitude," Riegg said. "We never want to have technical issues or a disappointing experience for our members. There was a subset of people that were watching that struggled with that and we acknowledge that. The good news is they stress-tested the system to such a degree that there's a lot of these fixes and improvements that they realized that they could make, and they're applying all that stuff."

Netflix has two games Wednesday, starting with a two-hour pregame at 11 a.m. EST before the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Kansas City Chiefs. The second game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans kicks off at 4:30 p.m. EST.

The games will be available to Netflix's 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally.

Many observers had not expected Netflix to make a foray into carrying games for one of the... Read More