DAZN

In July 2017, DAZN announced that it would expand into Canada, after having acquired OTT streaming rights to the National Football League in Canada, including NFL Game Pass and access to NFL RedZone; as a result of the deal, television providers would no longer sell the out-of-market sports package NFL Sunday Ticket to residential customers. The DAZN deal does not affect the NFL's newly extended linear television rights deal with Bell Media.[10][11][12] On 8 August 2017, DAZN reached a deal to sublicense content from beIN Sports Canada, including selected UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches (themselves sub-licensed from TSN), as well as other international sports rights.[13]

The Canadian launch was met with technical issues; DAZN apologized for the "inadequate service" that it delivered, and stated that it was working to rectify them. However, users still reported problems, including inconsistent stream qualities, buffering, and latency between the streams and television broadcasts.[14][15] As a result, DAZN began to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to television providers in October 2017, as had been the case before.[15] On 20 November 2017, DAZN acquired Canadian rights to FIBA events.[16]

In February 2018, DAZN acquired Canadian broadcast rights to the 2018 Commonwealth Games (later sub-licensing portions of the coverage to CBC Sports),[17] and subsumed Major League Soccer's digital out-of-market service MLS Live — with live and on-demand streaming of matches featuring U.S. teams (matches with Canadian teams will only be available after a 48-hour delay to protect the league's main rightsholders TSN and TVA Sports).[18][19] Roku support was also added that month.[20] In March, DAZN reached a syndication deal to carry content from Pac-12 Network (namely Pac-12 Conference college sports events) on the service in Canada.[21]

On 25 May 2018, DAZN announced that it had acquired exclusive Canadian rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, beginning in the 2018–19 season and replacing TSN.[22][23] In April 2019, DAZN announced that it had acquired Canadian rights to the Premier League, replacing Sportsnet and TSN, under a three-year deal.[24][25]

On 8 May 2018, DAZN announced that it had hired former ESPN president John Skipper as executive chairman.[26] Skipper stated that he eventually wanted DAZN to compete directly with traditional U.S. cable sports networks (such as ESPN).[27][28]

Two days later, DAZN announced that it would launch in the United States, and that it had reached a major broadcasting deal with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Sport.[29] Under the deal, DAZN streams 32 cards per-year, including 16 British Sky Sports Box Office cards, as well as 16 held in the United States (described by Hearn as being "twelve massive shows and four absolute monsters"). Hearn claimed that the deal, which will last for at least two years, with an option for a six-year extension (totalling US$1 billion over the life of the contract if realised), was a "groundbreaking deal in the history of boxing".[30][31]

On 26 June 2018, DAZN announced a five-year streaming rights deal with the Viacom-owned mixed martial arts promotion Bellator, which began with Bellator 206 on 29 September 2018, and includes the U.S. and all other regions currently served by DAZN. The rights include seven exclusive events per-year, as well as all events televised by Paramount Network.[32][33]

DAZN officially launched in the U.S. in September 2018, ahead of its first boxing event—Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin, on 22 September. Its launch content also included the World Boxing Super Series, as well as the AFC Champions League, the Chilean Primera Division, J-League and other content.[34][35] DAZN's broadcast team for its U.S. boxing events is led by "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Brian Kenny on play-by-play, with LZ Granderson as ringside reporter, and Michael Buffer as ring announcer. Buffer appeared in a U.S. marketing campaign for the service, which contrasted DAZN's subscription model to traditional pay-per-views.[36][37]

In September 2018, DAZN's parent company Perform Group underwent a reorganization, with its sports data business spun into a second company known as Perform Content (which was later sold to Vista Equity Partners and merged with STATS LLC in 2019 to form Stats Perform), and its consumer properties (including DAZN itself, as well as several co-owned sports news websites) retained as DAZN Group.[38][39]

On 17 October 2018, DAZN announced that it had signed a five-year, 11-fight deal with Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez valued at a minimum of $365 million, beginning with his then-upcoming bout against Rocky Fielding in December for the WBA super middleweight title. Álvarez was previously aligned with HBO, which had announced that it would discontinue boxing broadcasts. The contract overtook Giancarlo Stanton's $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins as the highest-valued contract with a single athlete in sport (since overtaken by Mike Trout's 10-year, near-$430 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels in 2019).[40][41][42]

In November 2018, Major League Baseball announced a three-year content partnership with DAZN, which includes on-demand highlights, and ChangeUp—a live nightly studio program featuring look-ins and analysis. Hosted by former ESPN Baseball Tonight anchor Adnan Virk.[43] it was described by executive producer Logan Swaim as stylistically mixing elements of NFL RedZone and his previous role Good Morning Football, and considered part of a goal to offer more content relating to mainstream, non-combat sports.[44][45]

DAZN launched in Italy in August 2018, with an acquisition of exclusive rights to 114 Serie A matches beginning in the 2018–19 season (with Sky Italia holding rights to 266), and other domestic rights on launch including the European Rugby Champions Cup, Showtime Championship Boxing, UFC programming, and the World Rally Championship, alongside DAZN's global rights portfolio.[46][47] The following September, DAZN announced that in order to improve the accessibility of its Serie A rights (especially in regions where internet service quality is insufficient for using DAZN), it would begin to offer a subscription-based linear channel on Sky Italia's satellite service, carrying selected content from the service (including its Serie A rights).[48]

In January 2019, DAZN acquired the rights to broadcast the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in Canada and the United States, beginning with the quarter-finals.[49] In March 2019, DAZN doubled its U.S. monthly cost, but also introduced a new yearly option at a discount.[50]

DAZN launched in Spain in February 2019, becoming its eighth market.[51] The service went live with a roster of exclusive premium sport content including MotoGP, Moto 2 and Moto3 (2019–2022), EuroLeague (2019/20–2022/23), EuroCup and Premier League (2019/20 to 2021/22). Other rights included FA Cup, EFL Cup, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana, EFL Championship, UFC, Golden Boy, Matchroom Boxing, and PDC Darts.

On 8 March 2019, DAZN signed a three-year, six-fight deal with Gennady Golovkin, under which it would broadcast two fights per-year. The contract also includes two cards per-year from Golovkin's GGG Promotions beginning in 2020. The deal began with his June 2019 bout against Canadian boxer Steve Rolls: Golovkin's promoter explained that the choice of a Canadian boxer was intended to help encourage DAZN subscriptions in the country.[52][53][54] Golovkin cited the broadcaster's "global vision" as an influence on the decision.[55]

In May 2019, former ESPN and Fox Sports executive Jamie Horowitz (who was known for having placed a large focus on debate-driven studio programs during his tenures at both networks) became DAZN's head of content.[56] Also that month, the service announced an expansion into Brazil as its ninth market (and first in South America), acquiring rights to the Copa Sudamericana and Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, and other international football competitions among other properties.[57][58]

In July 2019, DAZN's then CEO Simon Denyer told Bloomberg News that the company was interested in pursuing rights to the NFL in the United States to some degree (the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market package is currently exclusive to DirecTV).[59] That month, DAZN also reached a syndication deal with Eurosport in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Spain, allowing DAZN subscribers to access live and on-demand sports programming from Eurosport in these regions. In addition, DAZN sub-licensed 45 Bundesliga matches from Eurosport in Germany and Austria over the next two seasons — with 39 exclusive to the service.[60]

In September 2020, DAZN and Eurosport extends and expands the partnership until 2023, with the additional Eurosport channel for Switzerland viewers in 2020.[61]

On 2 March 2020, DAZN announced that it would expand into 200 countries worldwide, with an initial focus on giving wider distribution to its boxing and original content portfolio. The launch was originally scheduled for 2 May 2020 but was rescheduled to 24 July, before ultimately launching on 1 December.[62] With the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in widespread suspension of international sport, DAZN stated in late-March 2020 that it would not pay rightsholders for content that had not been delivered under their contracts.[63]

In December 2020, DAZN launched in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. For an initial low price point of £1.99 or less, the service went live with a roster of world championship boxing – including Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev, Canelo Alvarez vs Callum Smith, Gennadiy Golovkin vs Kamil Szeremeta and Ryan Garcia vs Luke Campbell.  

In December 2020, DAZN EVP of Global Brand, Joe Markowski, told Finder that the global launch was about "getting a foot in the door" in these markets. And that further investment, including bidding on local broadcast rights, will depend on DAZN being "taken up in high numbers, and exceeding our expectations. Then [when] we have local content opportunities that make sense for us and our board economically, we're going to really get started."[64]

Noted sports rights held by DAZN include:

Sports rights which are sublicensed to other broadcasters or not used by DAZN:

Association football

• Premier League

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela: Sublicensed to Disney (ESPN).[112][113]
Philippines: Sublicensed to TAP Sports (Premier Football).

• La Liga

Vietnam: Sublicensed to SCTV.[114]

Combat sports[114]

• GGG Promotions: DAZN has global exclusively rights.
• Golden Boy Promotions: DAZN has global exclusively rights.
• Matchroom Sport: DAZN has global exclusively rights, excluding Matchroom UK for IRL and UK viewers.

In April 2019, DAZN premiered a new, candid camera esque show, Da Pull Up, hosted by Akin "Ak" Reyes and Barak Bess, and premiered the first episode of 40 Days - docuseries chronicling the lead-up to Canelo Álvarez's bout against Daniel Jacobs.[115] [116]

In July 2019, former Indianapolis Colts punter and WWE personality Pat McAfee signed a content deal with DAZN, which added television simulcasts of his podcast and new syndicated, daily radio show to the service, as well as contributions to shoulder content for DAZN's NFL rights.[117]