Could Multicast ABR Really Have Saved the Paul/Tyson Fight?

When Netflix streamed the Paul/Tyson fight to a record-breaking 65 million simultaneous viewers, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Many viewers were left frustrated by buffering, freezes, and audio-sync issues. Like many other vendors, Broadpeak, a major player in streaming technology, claimed its multicast ABR (mABR) technology would have "knocked out video freezes" during the broadcast. It's a tantalizing promise, but could mABR realistically have delivered it? To understand, let's look at what mABR is, what's required to make it work, and why its widespread adoption is more complicated than Broadpeak might have you believe.