Matchroom Boxing and DAZN sign five-year global rights deal

[Boxerbeetle]

Much better deal for me, I don't watch other sport, so good riddance to having to shell out to get to the boxing on sky.

Similar here, I watch football but not enough to justify paying full price for Sky Sports. I already subscribe to DAZN and Fightzone so that’s around 7 quid a month for a shedload of boxing and that’s amazing value really. If DAZN goes up by a few quid then it will still be a great deal, as long as they don’t take the piss and put it straight up to a tenner or something.

[garethhop]

DAZN in Italy have got the football there and just increased their price to 29.99 (euros) a month.

Let's see what the fights are that can be made that Hearn hasn't been able to in the past 3 years in the US or in the UK when he had a PPV platform and a much stronger British roster than he has now.

[stujones]

Worrying for me is Eddie is already saying more British fighters abroad...and not necessarily in the US, but that hotbed of boxing talent Australia was mentioned.

It's all about the global brand...but my fear it will not fit and also effect the development of the British fighter.

What about the other way around....bring the top US prospects to the UK?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Worrying for me is Eddie is already saying more British fighters abroad...and not necessarily in the US, but that hotbed of boxing talent Australia was mentioned.

It's all about the global brand...but my fear it will not fit and also effect the development of the British fighter.

What about the other way around....bring the top US prospects to the UK?

He’s done that, but very rare and it’s always boxers with less than 10 fights.

[margaret thatcher]

imagine that adam smith jumps ship too , becomes dazn's head of boxing or playy by play man

the joy we'd have

[margaret thatcher]

Worrying for me is Eddie is already saying more British fighters abroad...and not necessarily in the US, but that hotbed of boxing talent Australia was mentioned.

It's all about the global brand...but my fear it will not fit and also effect the development of the British fighter.

What about the other way around....bring the top US prospects to the UK?

there are good opponents all around the world, not just in the uk. the problem might be if they are looking for a guy to fight in a certain country just for the hell of it, rather than having a genuinely good opponent there for them to fight

[maverick23]

Much better deal for me, I don't watch other sport, so good riddance to having to shell out to get to the boxing on sky.

Similar here, I watch football but not enough to justify paying full price for Sky Sports. I already subscribe to DAZN and Fightzone so that’s around 7 quid a month for a shedload of boxing and that’s amazing value really. If DAZN goes up by a few quid then it will still be a great deal, as long as they don’t take the piss and put it straight up to a tenner or something.

I think it’ll be a tenner a month. I’d be surprised if it’s cheaper. Over shows 40 a year (at least 35 Matchroom plus Golden Boy shows. Compared with fightzone that’s maybe a few more shows a year but at a much much lower quality on the whole. A 10er isn’t a taking the piss price I don’t think.

[Boxerbeetle]

Much better deal for me, I don't watch other sport, so good riddance to having to shell out to get to the boxing on sky.

Similar here, I watch football but not enough to justify paying full price for Sky Sports. I already subscribe to DAZN and Fightzone so that’s around 7 quid a month for a shedload of boxing and that’s amazing value really. If DAZN goes up by a few quid then it will still be a great deal, as long as they don’t take the piss and put it straight up to a tenner or something.

I think it’ll be a tenner a month. I’d be surprised if it’s cheaper. Over shows 40 a year (at least 35 Matchroom plus Golden Boy shows. Compared with fightzone that’s maybe a few more shows a year but at a much much lower quality on the whole. A 10er isn’t a taking the piss price I don’t think.

£10 from £2 would be a hell of a jump. That would be more than a Netflix subscription, or around half the price of an average Sky Sports subscription despite only showing boxing, which seems very pricy to me and couldn’t see it attracting many subscribers really.

[stujones]

Worrying for me is Eddie is already saying more British fighters abroad...and not necessarily in the US, but that hotbed of boxing talent Australia was mentioned.

It's all about the global brand...but my fear it will not fit and also effect the development of the British fighter.

What about the other way around....bring the top US prospects to the UK?

there are good opponents all around the world, not just in the uk. the problem might be if they are looking for a guy to fight in a certain country just for the hell of it, rather than having a genuinely good opponent there for them to fight

Yes, seems it was more like if fighter x from the UK fights on the undercard of this American bill it will help get more UK subscribers...but what about building that fighters uk fan base

I think if a brit is fighting a us journeyman...all I think it will do is make less people watch his fight.

[digzee]

Great news, sky have been taking liberties for years, Derek Chisora has headlined 2 PPV cards recently ffs. We are going to get less PPV's and better quality fight nights with the money they are putting in. Even if its a tenna a month I'm in.

[KiwiRider]

I know we are talking whats available for UK subscribers, wonder if all sectors of the companies markets will get the same options to view all DAZN boxing
It seems a fair thing to do, so I'm guessing they won't do it

I know there are differences in what I can and can't view on DuZN, the New Zealand version, might be the same for USA subscribers

[Greg Houston]

Interesting to read Hearn basically admitting him and Sky have been ripping us off with crap PPVs for years Shame on anyone who supported that model by buying them btw

Also interesting that the £1.99 is now being described as an ‘introductory’ offer rather than the regular price, which will presumably be announced in the next few months. They’ll need to be very careful on pricing it correctly, can’t see many people paying more than a fiver a month for a boxing only streaming service which doesn’t even feature AJ.

He did say it was due to purse demands of boxers. Sky weren’t willing to put up all the purse for certain fights, this is how Whyte became a PPV player. His purse demands were way more than the £1m, which was most he’d get. Anything extra came from the fans pockets.

I remember reading an interview where he said he could only pay certain boxers what they wanted by making the shows PPV. My reaction was that the boxers are asking for more than they're actually worth and he should tell them that. It's not like they could go elsewhere and get that pay day they were demanding.

[Scoops]

Interesting to read Hearn basically admitting him and Sky have been ripping us off with crap PPVs for years Shame on anyone who supported that model by buying them btw

Also interesting that the £1.99 is now being described as an ‘introductory’ offer rather than the regular price, which will presumably be announced in the next few months. They’ll need to be very careful on pricing it correctly, can’t see many people paying more than a fiver a month for a boxing only streaming service which doesn’t even feature AJ.

He did say it was due to purse demands of boxers. Sky weren’t willing to put up all the purse for certain fights, this is how Whyte became a PPV player. His purse demands were way more than the £1m, which was most he’d get. Anything extra came from the fans pockets.

I remember reading an interview where he said he could only pay certain boxers what they wanted by making the shows PPV. My reaction was that the boxers are asking for more than they're actually worth and he should tell them that. It's not like they could go elsewhere and get that pay day they were demanding.

There is logic to this. Someone is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

"I'm not fighting for less than £1m"

"Ok, your not fighting"

Six months later and no fight and no pay day.

"About that Saturday Fight Night show where you were offering me £200k...."

[maverick23]

He did say it was due to purse demands of boxers. Sky weren’t willing to put up all the purse for certain fights, this is how Whyte became a PPV player. His purse demands were way more than the £1m, which was most he’d get. Anything extra came from the fans pockets.

I remember reading an interview where he said he could only pay certain boxers what they wanted by making the shows PPV. My reaction was that the boxers are asking for more than they're actually worth and he should tell them that. It's not like they could go elsewhere and get that pay day they were demanding.

There is logic to this. Someone is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

"I'm not fighting for less than £1m"

"Ok, your not fighting"

Six months later and no fight and no pay day.

"About that Saturday Fight Night show where you were offering me £200k...."

It’s a different marketplace nowadays though. Fighters, like a Dillian Whyte, would just go to another promoter as there’d be several that offer
big money to him.

[Scoops]

I remember reading an interview where he said he could only pay certain boxers what they wanted by making the shows PPV. My reaction was that the boxers are asking for more than they're actually worth and he should tell them that. It's not like they could go elsewhere and get that pay day they were demanding.

There is logic to this. Someone is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

"I'm not fighting for less than £1m"

"Ok, your not fighting"

Six months later and no fight and no pay day.

"About that Saturday Fight Night show where you were offering me £200k...."

It’s a different marketplace nowadays though. Fighters, like a Dillian Whyte, would just go to another promoter as there’d be several that offer
big money to him.

I understand that, and for Whyte it's probably true BT would offer PPV too. For Chisora v Parker though would they have got as good deal anywhere else? The pandemic means stadium income is next to zero but inflated purses have led to inflated expectations. Shows / promotions running at short-term losses is bad for long-term sustainability.

Look, if DAZN offers decent cards for a not too big price then I'm all for it but it does bother me if it gets up to a tenner a month that many fans won't pay it and the sport will be in a less good place without the Sky Sports hype.

[3132DW]

Similar here, I watch football but not enough to justify paying full price for Sky Sports. I already subscribe to DAZN and Fightzone so that’s around 7 quid a month for a shedload of boxing and that’s amazing value really. If DAZN goes up by a few quid then it will still be a great deal, as long as they don’t take the piss and put it straight up to a tenner or something.

I think it’ll be a tenner a month. I’d be surprised if it’s cheaper. Over shows 40 a year (at least 35 Matchroom plus Golden Boy shows. Compared with fightzone that’s maybe a few more shows a year but at a much much lower quality on the whole. A 10er isn’t a taking the piss price I don’t think.

£10 from £2 would be a hell of a jump. That would be more than a Netflix subscription, or around half the price of an average Sky Sports subscription despite only showing boxing, which seems very pricy to me and couldn’t see it attracting many subscribers really.

If you take the $99 for year in US equivalent that’s about £6.15 a month if we are offered the same - for 30-35 shows a year I’d take that to be honest for 2-3 shows per month.

Sky have given up loads of coverage over last few years - Tennis/WWE/La Liga/Dutch Footy/Rugby Union....have Rugby League 10m less in new deal.

They are lowering the content every year yet are adding 2 price increases every year basically to pay for EPL.

[maverick23]

Similar here, I watch football but not enough to justify paying full price for Sky Sports. I already subscribe to DAZN and Fightzone so that’s around 7 quid a month for a shedload of boxing and that’s amazing value really. If DAZN goes up by a few quid then it will still be a great deal, as long as they don’t take the piss and put it straight up to a tenner or something.

I think it’ll be a tenner a month. I’d be surprised if it’s cheaper. Over shows 40 a year (at least 35 Matchroom plus Golden Boy shows. Compared with fightzone that’s maybe a few more shows a year but at a much much lower quality on the whole. A 10er isn’t a taking the piss price I don’t think.

£10 from £2 would be a hell of a jump. That would be more than a Netflix subscription, or around half the price of an average Sky Sports subscription despite only showing boxing, which seems very pricy to me and couldn’t see it attracting many subscribers really.

If you can get Sky Sports for £20 a month (without it being a trial) then you’ve got a decent deal as it’s usually £30+.

I agree it would be a good % jump but allegedly was £10 a month or would be responsible for putting on c.14 U.K. shows a year, bulk of them average (I only ever remember the Haye/Chisora and Eubank Jr/BJS shows being big PPV worthy shows promoted by FW in that time) and would show the occasional good US show with some Russian shows.

By the sound of it DAZN at the same price would be a fair bit better than that if the quality of the U.K. shows are ramped up.

I wonder if they’ll offer an annual subscription like they have in the US.

[digzee]

He did say it was due to purse demands of boxers. Sky weren’t willing to put up all the purse for certain fights, this is how Whyte became a PPV player. His purse demands were way more than the £1m, which was most he’d get. Anything extra came from the fans pockets.

I remember reading an interview where he said he could only pay certain boxers what they wanted by making the shows PPV. My reaction was that the boxers are asking for more than they're actually worth and he should tell them that. It's not like they could go elsewhere and get that pay day they were demanding.

There is logic to this. Someone is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

"I'm not fighting for less than £1m"

"Ok, your not fighting"

Six months later and no fight and no pay day.

"About that Saturday Fight Night show where you were offering me £200k...."

Well he cant do that if he wants to keep his fighters. He was losing fighters to PBC a few years ago so had to pay the fighters more.

[Dull Tools]

In Germany DAZN is 11.99 Euros a month and they have all the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Can't see the Boxing being more than £4.99 even if they get AJ.

DAZN are obviously going to go for other sports but I wonder what they will be? BT Sports is up for sale so that would be an easy way to get lots of rights.

They could get a lot of other Matchroom stuff too such as the darts and snooker.

Wonder if there will still be Next Gen shows? They were pretty good and would be great if they put that on terrestrial TV.

[NoScoutingReports]

Happy enough with this news, already subbed to DAZN and have enjoyed their content in the main so far, so the more the better. Echo the comments above regarding hoping the price hike isn't too big!

[Dan Dares]

It's not important - but the production on this video statement is really bad.

The dodgy Green Screen makes his hair look grey, sound quality is pretty bad (lots of reverb in Eddie's empty office), it's badly lit and the camera transitions are dodgy too. It's almost like it's trying to be pro-level, and falling well short.

If he's going to do a lot of statements from his office, Eddie needs to get a booth.

If this is the shape of things to come from Matchroom's production team, eeeek.

That said, apart from a few mic leaks, and expected live broadcast hiccups, production so far on DAZN has been fine, butt's going to be interesting to see what happens. They'll need to learn quickly.

[garethhop]

In Germany DAZN is 11.99 Euros a month and they have all the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Can't see the Boxing being more than £4.99 even if they get AJ.

DAZN are obviously going to go for other sports but I wonder what they will be? BT Sports is up for sale so that would be an easy way to get lots of rights.

They could get a lot of other Matchroom stuff too such as the darts and snooker.

Wonder if there will still be Next Gen shows? They were pretty good and would be great if they put that on terrestrial TV.

DAZN only has a portion of the Bundesliga - 45 games compared with 52 Premier League games shown by Amazon Prime for example.

Darts and Snooker are tied into long term deals. Most UK sport is.

Clearly, DAZN will be v interested in the BT Sport deal but that isn't a quick process.

Re: AJ, Markowski has confirmed that PPV will be a part of the DAZN model........

[stujones]

It's not important - but the production on this video statement is really bad.

The dodgy Green Screen makes his hair look grey, sound quality is pretty bad (lots of reverb in Eddie's empty office), it's badly lit and the camera transitions are dodgy too. It's almost like it's trying to be pro-level, and falling well short.

If he's going to do a lot of statements from his office, Eddie needs to get a booth.

If this is the shape of things to come from Matchroom's production team, eeeek.

That said, apart from a few mic leaks, and expected live broadcast hiccups, production so far on DAZN has been fine, butt's going to be interesting to see what happens. They'll need to learn quickly.

I think these super zoomed in shots of boxing in behind the scenes documentaries that I see (sky do them also) - have a dated feel to them. Thought these camera transitions looked the same also.

I've not got Dazn so couldn't tell you about live broadcast - I assume Matchroom media have had a big impact on various "sky" behind the scenes stuff (e.g. Joshua vs Klitschko had one, Bellew vs Usyk also) - that super slo mo, super zoomed shot of Jodhua with the Wembley flames in the background feels very late 90s, early noughties.

[milpool]

So what happens to Adam Smith? Does he get a full time gig on the Netball now?

[tonyevs]

I think the price increase we have all been expecting will initially be £5 a month .. then soon increased to £9.99.
Thats still pretty good if we get the good shows from USA with the Canelo`s etc, plus the Matchroom fillers.

What I am concerned about is that the USA shows featuring the bigger name boxers decreasing or becoming PPV events and all we`re left with is UK small hall shows headlined by Campbell Hatton against some boxer 3 divisions smaller than him with a 2-78-3 fight record.