DAZN: The Netflix of sports?

A slew of ambitious sports broadcasting deals that are disrupting old business models have been made this year.

Leading the disrupters is DAZN, which is being billed as the Netflix of sports. Its most recent rights announcement has been described as “unprecedented”: the five-year, multi-million dollar broadcast agreement with American boxing promoter Golden Boy to screen up to 10 live and on-demand fights per year including bouts featuring middleweight superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Costing $365m, DAZN will show the fights in all its territories - Austria, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Canada and the USA.

DAZN only launched in August 2016, created by the Perform Group, the UK-based sports media company that itself is owned by Len Blavatnik’s US-based multi-national industrial group, Access Industries. DAZN is one of a raft of new subscription video streaming companies and they already employ almost 1,000 people with headquarters in London.

DAZN has deliberately pitched its subs price at an affordable level - €9.99 per month in Europe; $9.99 in the US; $20 in Canada; and 1,750 yen in Japan and, while combat sports have been a key early driver, their rights properties also include top football such as Champions League, Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga plus NFL American football, Formula 1, Heineken Champions Cup rugby union and MLB baseball, although not every deal covers every territory.

Stephen Nuttall, commercial and strategy advisor on sports and a former senior executive at YouTube and BSkyB, says: “Of all the independent OTT providers, DAZN seems to have the boldest ambitions, pursuing…