DAZN: Canelo-Jacobs Fight Watched By 1.2 Million Worldwide

[Ruthless-RKO]

DAZN doesn’t divulge its subscription numbers, but the emerging streaming service deemed the Canelo Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs fight a success Wednesday as best it could.

A press release issued Wednesday afternoon by DAZN revealed that more than 1.2 million viewers watched the Alvarez-Jacobs bout live Saturday night from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That figure includes subscribers from the eight markets in which DAZN is available – the United States, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

The press release indicated DAZN drew “significant paid subscriptions – both annual and monthly – to deliver against projected revenue targets” from Alvarez-Jacobs. DAZN costs $19.99 to view on a monthly basis or $99.99 for an annual pass ($8.33 per month).

Unlike linear television channels, monitored in the U.S. by Nielsen Media Research, there isn’t an independent auditor that tracts viewership of streaming services. A source familiar with DAZN’s U.S. business indicated, however, that the Alvarez-Jacobs bout was watched via in excess of 600,000 concurrent streams in the United States.

That data would indicate that DAZN has at least 600,000 subscribers in the United States who’ve signed up for at least one month.

[Onetimeonly]

Ouch

[Ruthless-RKO]

So 1.2 million worldwide watched it live.

Roughly 600,000 live viewership in the US.

I genuinely thought more than 1 million in the US alone would watch it. It’s a mega fight and it was a fraction of what Canelo-GGG was.

But looks like they broke even.

If Canelo wants to be paid handsomely, he needs to fight big names on DAZN.

P.s. Might get a few people saying DAZN only has 1.2 million subs. No they have more.

[Onetimeonly]

They didn't break even. I think it would have done at least 4 million if it was offered on cable for $20. They're just getting what they can out of boxing while they wait for some big sport contracts to be open for bidding. I get it now.

[Ruthless-RKO]

The Canelo Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs middleweight championship fight had more than 1.2 million viewers watching across DAZN’s eight territories, the streaming service announced Wednesday. More than 700,000 devices – some on $20 monthly plans and some on $100 annual subscriptions – were tuned into the fight with more than 600,000 of the concurrent streams coming from the United States, a source with knowledge of the figures told ESPN, adding that the fight generated more revenue in new subscriptions than the roughly $48 million cost of the main event. The fight was the second of Alvarez’s five-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN.


Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer

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They saying success. 700k new devices got on the new payment plan. TBH, I thought more people would watch it.

Dan said it covered the main event purse.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Now saying between 700k and 900k tuned in on US soil

[tiny_acres]

Now saying between 700k and 900k tuned in on US soil

We will never know the truth.

[Onetimeonly]

We will never know the truth.

We know that a million at $20 doesn't cover canelo.

[garethhop]

Ouch.

Remember those new subs also need to cover the Joshua costs too given there will be very few comparative new subscribers adding for that fight.

Will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

[greg]

..if DAZN really wanted to impress anyone, they should have presented numbers in comprehensible layman's terms...otherwise it leaves a lot of room for interpretation..

[Enlightened-One]

The Canelo Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs middleweight championship fight had more than 1.2 million viewers watching across DAZN’s eight territories, the streaming service announced Wednesday. More than 700,000 devices – some on $20 monthly plans and some on $100 annual subscriptions – were tuned into the fight with more than 600,000 of the concurrent streams coming from the United States, a source with knowledge of the figures told ESPN, adding that the fight generated more revenue in new subscriptions than the roughly $48 million cost of the main event. The fight was the second of Alvarez’s five-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN.


Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer

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They saying success. 700k new devices got on the new payment plan. TBH, I thought more people would watch it.

Dan said it covered the main event purse.

I’m not sure if I understand Mike Coppinger’s definition of the phrase “big success”…

Based on DAZN’s 700K peak viewership figures for an event where the combined total purses for the headline fight costs $48m (excl. the undercard and associated expenses), this equates to $68.57 per DAZN subscriber and I seriously doubt the shortfall would be addressed by international TV license fees.

The monthly cost of a DAZN subscription is $19.99 (or $8.33 per month for an annual plan costing $99.99), which surely means that the Canelo-Jacobs bout was a loss-making event. It had to be subsidised the DAZN’s owners or via loans.

1.2m viewers globally, for an event likely to cost approx. $60m to stage, equates to $50 per household. And what about the cost of all the other marquee sporting events funded by DAZN that they seem to cover every day or week?

Where is all the money coming from?

DAZN has adopted the same business model as Netflix, which is roughly $12 billion in debt, despite having 139 million subscribers. So how on earth are DAZN going to survive in the long-term, because they’re already making so many huge losses?

[ironbeard]

Who sold the rights in Mexico to Televisa and TV Azteca, and for how much? According to ESPN Deportes, over 30 million watched the fight over those two networks, in Mexico.

[Ruthless-RKO]

1.2m viewers globally, for an event likely to cost approx. $60m to stage, equates to $50 per household. And what about the cost of all the other marquee events funded by DAZN that they seem to cover every week?

Where is all the money coming from?

You're confusing the figures. 1.2 million watched the fight globally, with around 700,000 being in on US soil, that doesn't mean only 1.2 million subscribers paid for it.

They have around 4 million worldwide subs.

DAZN attracted 600k new subscribers before the Canelo-Jacobs.

Some paid the $100 annual and some signed up for the $19 monthly.


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So existing customer paid $9.99, and then any new customers paid for the new plan. Call it an average $13?

They probably made $50m this month..

[Enlightened-One]

You're confusing the figures. 1.2 million watched the fight globally, with around 700,000 being in on US soil, that doesn't mean only 1.2 million subscribers paid for it.

They have around 4 million worldwide subs.

DAZN attracted 600k new subscribers before the Canelo-Jacobs.

Some paid the $100 annual and some signed up for the $19 monthly.


----------------------------------
So existing customer paid $9.99, and then any new customers paid for the new plan. Call it an average $13?

They probably made $50m this month..

I'm not confusing the maths. The DAZN viewership that actually watched the bout (1.2m) was insufficient to cover the costs of the event itself, based on the typical monthly revenue.

If we assume the total cost of the event was $60m, with DAZN having 4m subscribers, the cost per subscription for the Canelo-Jacobs event equates to $15 per subscriber.

Monthly subscription prices are either $19.99 per month or $8.33 per month (based on the one-off annual $99.99 plan).

The assumption is that most viewers would likely pay for the annual plan, which means that the average monthly DAZN subscription would likely be less than $15.

However, the viewership figure was only 1.2m, not 4m.

DAZN still have to fund other sporting events they televise daily/weekly from the total monthly revenue they receive from their subscribers, to satisfy the entirety of their 4m customer-base.

People wouldn’t have paid the annual $99.99 plan to only watch the Canelo-Jacobs bout, as they would expect to receive an entire years’ worth of sporting content in return for their initial outlay.

In order for DAZN to financially justify the cost to stage a sporting event, it surely must break even (i.e. the revenue received from the actual viewership figures covers the total costs).

We know for certain that DAZN wouldn’t have received enough money from the 1.2m subscribers who watched the fight to cover the total expense of the $60m Canelo-Jacobs event, since the cost equates to $50 per household, which is clearly greater than the monthly subscription fee.

[Onetimeonly]

You're confusing the figures. 1.2 million watched the fight globally, with around 700,000 being in on US soil, that doesn't mean only 1.2 million subscribers paid for it.

They have around 4 million worldwide subs.

DAZN attracted 600k new subscribers before the Canelo-Jacobs.

Some paid the $100 annual and some signed up for the $19 monthly.


----------------------------------
So existing customer paid $9.99, and then any new customers paid for the new plan. Call it an average $13?

They probably made $50m this month..

50 million? Are you kidding? Maybe if they they got 10 million new subscribers. Seems unlikely.

[Ruthless-RKO]

However, the viewership figure was only 1.2m, not 4m.

You do realise that 4 million people paid May's subscription, not just the 1.2 million that actually watched it?

Boxing isn't like other sports such as NFL. Might see a slight peak in months were a big boxing event is on.

[greg]

...
They have around 4 million worldwide subs.
.....

..quick question: where does this "4 million worldwide subs" come from?

[Enlightened-One]

You do realise that 4 million people paid May's subscription, not just the 1.2 million that actually watched it?

And many (if not most) of them would expect to receive an entire years' worth of sporting content in return.

Anyway, my argument is about viewership figures per event versus the cost of staging it.

The $60m cost to stage the Canelo-Jacobs event equates to $50 for each of the 1.2m people who watched it worldwide, which is far greater than the typical monthly subscription DAZN fee. It clearly didn't attract sufficient viewers to justify the financial outlay.

[oogiebe]

..quick question: where does this "4 million worldwide subs" come from?

DAZN won't release the numbers, but Forbes estimates 4 million global subscribers.

[greg]

DAZN won't release the numbers, but Forbes estimates 4 million global subscribers.

..Ok. thanks, I didn't know it ..

[oogiebe]

..Ok. thanks, I didn't know it ..

Sure thing!!!

[Ruthless-RKO]

..Ok. thanks, I didn't know it ..

Japan has the most subs, around 1 million alone.

[Ruthless-RKO]

It clearly didn't attract sufficient viewers to justify the financial outlay.

I understand what you're saying.


But, it had enough subscriptions.

In all honesty, I thought more people would watch it. It was supposed to be a mega-fight.

It did the same viewers that Canelo-GGG fights did and people paid $70-80 alone per fight for that.

[littlepug]

I understand what you're saying.


But, it had enough subscriptions.

In all honesty, I thought more people would watch it. It was supposed to be a mega-fight.

It did the same viewers that Canelo-GGG fights did and people paid $70-80 alone per fight for that.

Never really thought of it as a mega fight, certainly not as big as the GGG fight, besides, I could walk round all day asking people if they knew who GGG, Canelo or Jacobs were and would most likely not come across anyone who did, out of the3 Canelo well known in Mexico and that’s about it.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Never really thought of it as a mega fight, certainly not as big as the GGG fight, besides, I could walk round all day asking people if they knew who GGG, Canelo or Jacobs were and would most likely not come across anyone who did, out of the3 Canelo well known in Mexico and that’s about it.

No ofcourse not as big as the GGG fights. But was hyped well. Jacobs is arguably #3 behind GGG and Canelo.