DAZN, a global sports streaming service, launches in the U.S. on Monday in advance of its first live event on Saturday, Sept. 22. The OTT product is emphasizing fight sports to gain a foothold in this country and will air the heavyweight title bout between Anthony Joshua and Alexander “The Russian Warrior” Povetkin live from Wembley Stadium in London. Its first domestically produced fight will be on Oct. 6.
Prior to the official debut, DAZN will soft-launch with the Saturday, Sept. 8, welterweight fight between Amir Khan and Samuel Vargas. That bout will be available for free on the company’s U.S. Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Since its 2016 launch, DAZN (pronounced “Da-zone”) has made inroads in Germany, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, and, most recently, Italy. In some of those markets, DAZN has acquired broadcast rights to major properties, including the NFL, MLB, the NBA, the Champions League, and Serie A. As a start in the U.S.—where DAZN will cost $9.99 per month after a one month free trial—the OTT channel will air major boxing events promoted by Matchroom and MMA fights organized by Bellator, as well as some smaller yet-to-be-announced sports leagues.
“We think OTT sports is kind of the last bastion of the cable-cutting world,” said DAZN’s head of programming, Scott Woodgate. “We think sports broadcasting in this format is a great step forward, and we can do so much more with sports data.”
The Perform Group-owned DAZN uses data to make every decision, from markets to enter, rights to acquire, and content to curate. In a sneak peek of the interface that launches on Monday, DAZN’s director of product, Marcus Parnwell, said the plan is to provide users with a mixture of discovery and search for content. The display previewed on Thursday was comparable to the format of Netflix or Apple TV—fitting for a company that aspires to be the “Netflix of Sports.” Five rows, or rails, were visible with headers of Featured, Upcoming, Boxing, MMA, and More. (The more section had subheaders for cricket and soccer, but exactly what content that included was unclear.)
While DAZN launched in other countries with more live sporting content—the service carries 15,000 live games per year, globally—the weekly or bi-weekly nature of major fight sports means U.S. programming will be unique. That means more original content as well as relevant archived fights.
“We have to curate a lot more of our own content and a lot more supportive content around those major events,” Parnwell said. “It’s just a slightly different slant on how the product will work in this market.”
And DAZN continues hinting at bigger plans for American sports fans, although fans might need to be patient. As CEO James Rushton said a few months ago, the plan is “to be famous in boxing and fight sports,” building name recognition and reliability prior to expansion.
“We have some pretty ambitious plans in this market, as far as rights go,” Woodgate said. “When they become available, we’re going to be there at the table.”
Parnwell outlined three major considerations before launch in each market: broadband infrastructure, rights availability, and customer spending habits. There’s a “Goldilocks zone,” he said, of balancing those criteria.
While few rights are available in the U.S. at the moment, there is greater opportunity in the other two considerations. Perform Group CEO Simon Denyer said in May that there 220 million OTT subscriptions among 110 households in the U.S., meaning that on average each household already has two. Parnwell described the U.S. as a very mature market and the “gold standard in OTT delivery.” While DAZN’s services in Canada and Italy have suffered from technical issues with streaming quality, Parnwell said DAZN has been in touch with all of the major content delivery network suppliers and technical partners in the U.S. to ensure a smooth launch.
“Obviously live-streaming is hard,” Parnwell said. “It’s very complex. We are very much up for learning from things that we’ve done and making sure we’ve improved the service. We’ve worked very hard to get ready for market launches, and we’re very confident in our U.S. launch.”
DAZN has emphasized distribution and will be available on all major streaming devices. Parnwell said the data shows mobile viewing tends to be short form, tablets and laptops are often for personal viewing, but “the big screen is where DAZN really sings.”
The network does not air commercials (unless contractually obligated by a league) and will offer additional coverage during those breaks. In boxing, for instance, that might mean a close-up of a fighter in a corner, perhaps with a trainer wearing a microphone. Woodgate promised a mix of traditional and non-traditional camera angles and personalities analyzing the matches.
“Style, tone, and look and feel is incredibly important,” Woodgate said.