Not sure on the love in for Viaplay (unless people here work for them), you can't even get it in the UK....
Surely Eddie has to announce a bunch of shows this week for the next 3 months. DAZN UK subscribers are currently paying for nothing.
I think they'll be finalised this week and announced next weekend / during Joshua Usyk fight week. I know they are planning on Wood Santa Cruz in Nottingham, Benn Eubank Jr at the 02, Josh Warrington in Leeds, Katie Taylor, and maybe Joshua Buatsi vs Jean Pascal.
Never heard of them myself until 3 months ago and there is an imminent official launch in the UK. Already Viaplay have purchased Premier Sports and will have a TV Platform with 4 Channels in addition to their streaming service. The rebranding of Premier Sports to Viaplay coming soon. Viaplay already have the football international rights secured for 4 years now for many European Countries including Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and Eire plus Spanish La Liga, both Scottish Cups, Italian Cup, German Cup. Add in Rugby, Boxnation with the odd Bakole v Yoka fight, Ice Hockey and you can see the value for the current £99.99 annual subscription. Compare to DAZN UK for £7.99 per month for basically a monthly nextgen card plus female fights and you can see the huge difference. Would not be surprised if DAZN UK is sold to Viaplay as DAZN has hit a wall.
I was expecting huge things when DAZN stated their intent for world domination, making the kind of moves Viaplay seem to be doing. it's all been a bit underwhelming from DAZN hasn't it?
DAZN exec has moved over also https://tbivision.com/2022/07/21/vi...mier-sports-hires-dazn-exec-to-lead-uk-sport/
The Netflix of Sport has less sport content than Channel 5. Has the feel of one of those small shops selling old furniture.
Damn! That's pretty significant. "Sports streamer DAZN has found itself under increasing pressure over the past 12 months and revealed losses of $1.3bn in February. Job losses followed at its UK office earlier this year." Not looking good.
Viaplay Group has secured NHL Ice Hockey rights until 2027 + a number of martial arts & fight events. Leading up to the launch of Viaplay and the rebranding of Premier Sports TV Channels, they will announce even more sportsrights.
It has been very disappointing, but it is also because Eddie Hearn raised expectations for the DAZN streaming service. He promised way too much.
I seem to rember a few years back when Hearn had signed over Matchroom's International rights to DAZN and kept his domestic Sky deal in place, I think he just signed Danny Jacobs and he seemed on top of the world because of the level of investment DAZN were making. I recall the word "Billions" being used for him to play with, which is a lot of money for an investment in boxing, but in reality have DAZN invested anywhere near the amount needed in other areas of their business? The sheer level of investment it would to compete with all the global major sport networks to become the "Netflix of Sport" is quite hard to wrap your head around when you think about it. Especially when you've got competitors like Sky, Fox, ESPN, BT Sports, Showtime etc.
Question, if Hearn / Matchroom end up leaving DAZN in the next 5-10 years, do you think Sky Sports would take them back, as I don't think they are exclusive with Boxxer only but I could be wrong. I think they would be foolish not to. To be fair, DAZN isn't doing terribly in the US at all, especially if Hearn didn't let Haney fight Kambosos on ESPN. If he returns to DAZN they'll be in an even better place to make the Ryan Garcia fight. However, there aren't a lot of UK shows and some of the undercards have been dreadful.
