Delayed at the onset of the pandemic in March, DAZN is moving forward with a plan to expand internationally, aiming to reach 200 countries on Dec. 1.
“I have wanted to be international,” DAZN executive chairman John Skipper told Deadline. “I’m not going to pretend this was the road map. I do think that COVID gave us a chance to evaluate our plans.”
Launched in 2016, backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik, and rebounding from a pandemic-caused live-sports lull to a current total of around 8 million subscribers, DAZN is now available in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Japan. Monthly prices range from $10-$20. But for its expansion, the platform will be asking for a price of £1.99 (about $2.50) or less in most territories.
"From the UK to Mexico to Australia, we've seen an encouraging level of interest in our key events since first launching in 2016," said Joseph Markowski, executive VP at DAZN, in a statement. "We're looking forward to introducing the DAZN platform around the world this December with an exciting schedule of fights.”
DAZN has grown on the popularity of its live boxing events. And the service has two fights lined up in December to fuel its launch: undefeated Ryan Garcia vs. Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell on Dec. 5; and the heavyweight title bout between Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev on Dec. 12.
DAZN’s previous expansion plan, before it got put on hold in March.
:We really weren’t producing anything, we weren’t marketing anything,” Skipper said, explaining the pandemic interruption. "We weren’t buying new rights. So we did have a genuine chance to stop and kind of go, ‘What’s working and not working?’”
The original plan was to hook the expansion on Mexican four-division champion Canelo Alvarez. But as Deadline reported, DAZN has been at odds with promotor Golden Boy Promotions over the details of the $365 million deal. The process is in arbitration.
