DAZN – What does Eddie Hearn’s new international deal mean for the sport?
By Connor Hutton
Netflix, Amazon Prime, Now TV. Platforms we are all familiar with from the online streaming world. How these services have grown in recent years is phenomenal. Netflix is one of the world’s fastest growing entities in terms of subscribers, where as TV subscriptions for services such as Sky Movies have dropped in the last three years.
If that can happen in the television and movie industry, then its highly likely it could happen to sport. Exact figures are not certain but sports tv packages aren’t as popular as they used to be. Mainly due to pricing and the availability of illegal streaming. But how does sports subscription fit into boxing and can it be a success? Well Eddie Hearn’s new billion-dollar deal with DAZN Sports Group could be the platform that pushes us to new highs.
Say what you want about Hearn, but he does have a knack of proving us wrong time and time again, and as much as people love to dislike the man, he is way ahead of the competition in the UK at the moment. Even when it looked to be closer than ever with BT Sports deal with Queensbury, Hearn manages to pull something out the bag, and this DAZN deal might well be that, and then some
Who are DAZN? A huge company that operates streaming services in Canada, Japan, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. They have the rights to the UEFA Champions League, Premier league, La Liga and much more. They have a lot of money behind them, and to provide Hearn with 16 USA shows isn’t cheap, and a whole lot of talent to go with it.
The 16 USA shows that have been announced is massive. These 16 shows will be broadcast in the UK on Sky Sports, including 4 ‘monster’ shows according to Hearn. This will also be alongside the other 16 UK shows Matchroom already have, 32 yearly events on Sky Sports is excellent for the fans.
The money DAZN has provided to Matchroom to fund this event has attracted some of the biggest stars and rumoured that offers have already been made from the promotional company to stars such as Adrien Broner (drastically turned down and broadcasted by Broner on social media), the Charlo twins, Mikey Garcia and Keith Thurman. Hearn is aiming big and expect him to sign some of these talents, they all know he has the money due to broadcasting ‘the billion-dollar deal’ so they will be payed big. Broner was offered seven million over three fights as a starting offer after all.
This is just the beginning, if the streaming service is a success which it is expected to be. Then surely other huge companies will want a piece of the pie. Amazon have already decided they are willing to bid for football packages in the future so why not Boxing too? PPV events could be exclusive online which would provide huge income and a worldwide platform for any star. Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder on Netflix? This sort of thing could be where the industry is heading.
Other promoters will criticise the idea of course. But if they were offered the same deal to broadcast these shows would they turn it down? Its an unconventional way of broadcasting live sport but the modern world demands change and getting in there early could keep you at the top for a long while.
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