Interesting that Eddie was asked by IFL how he replaces the marketing that Sky brought through Sky Sports News etc, and he says they are about to announce a new partnership in that area
How much do people think a DAZN subscription is actually worth to be considered good value for money. ? £1.99 represents really good value considering the coverage in recent weeks, but they cannot sustain that price. I think it's just a matter of weeks before DAZN sends out the email with the offer of a 12 month subscription for £99.99 a year or a significantly higher monthly charge. The numbers just don't add up, especially with what they have paid Hearn to leave Sky.
What surprises me about this deal (and is why I didn’t think it would happen), is that Matchroom’s entire UK model over the past few years has been building PPV attractions. With the help of Sky in a seemingly very mutually beneficial relationship, he’d turned puddings such as fringe contender Dillian Whyte and domestic gatekeeper Derek Chisora in to PPV ‘stars’. The UK cards have been dire for the last 2-3 years, but even they have been all about building the next PPV main eventers. Benn, Buatsi, Okolie, Hatton, Taylor, Courtenay, Harper etc. are all at various stages along this path which is why it seems odd to close that door on them now. My guess is either DAZN are putting up an absolute fortune for this, which is possible but goes against all financial reports, or that Hearn thinks the PPV bubble is gonna burst soon and he’s not got the confidence in these names becoming huge draws, so he’s getting out of that game - AJ and Whyte excepted.
In the interview Eddie said the price will go up after the Fight camp shows when the full schedule is announced, and as fans it will be cheaper than what we think...... I think it will be round about £9.99 in line with the likes of Prime and Netflix, but we all know Hearn is greedy and DAZN have lost millions in America it wouldn't be beyond them to say £19.99 (price of 1 standard PPV) per month or £99.99 for the year. I do think the year at a cheaper rate will be something they look for as they did the same in the US. He also listed the US's PPV schedule and to be a boxing fan in the USA is ridiculously expensive.
Hopefully we might get a bit more impartiality from the pundits and commentators then, instead of them being MR cheerleaders.
Eh Day has got a big job in hand flogging this streaming service for one UK card for 8 months and 2 cards for the other 4 months. Will be interested to see his sales pitch to see how the World Class Sales Guru reels them in.
Its worked for Canelo so i am sure it does make sense. Look at Netflix. The key is to work as a loss leader to drive Sky etc out of business. As a guide the subs will be forecast over a 6 month period. For instance. They pay AJ £30m for a fight. £9.99 over 6 months and they will essentially need 500,000 subscribers which is a massive underestimation. They are hitting that in the US alone let alone globally
Part of that is the show on the other foot. It’s the only model Sky would put up that would pay the fighters to put on a half decent card. Dazn are funding this now without PPV pressure
£80 a year like Prime or eight quid a month should be the absolute maximum price for DAZN if it’s just boxing content.
Boxnation pulled over 500,000 for Haye Chisora, and that was needing a direct debit and phone calls to cancel, DAZN in actually a lot easier subscribe and cancel, as long as they nail the promotion and marketing they could pull in those numbers, it makes no sense to me for DAZN to go all in huge and not get the Matchroom jewel in the crown.
If you take into account all the US and International cards and it ends up costing a fiver a month, that's decent value in my book. They can't magic money out of thin air.
The foreign fights only attract real boxing fans with the odd exception usually involving one of our fighters. The cards will need to be much better quality or Matchroom Boxing will be out of sight, out of mind for many. Eh Day is the man to make this work and we will have a better idea about the quality next month.
