DAZN to buy BT Sport.

[Boxerbeetle]

BT has the Champions League too.

If DAZN charged £10pm worldwide. I had the EPL, boxing, Champions League, UFC, and maybe nicked a bit of Wrestling. I guess with what the Americans pay, if they wernt greedy, they could
wipe out any competition.

Would be it good value?

How many subs could they get?

That would be great value but not sure how sustainable it will be as they’ll need big big volumes of customers to cover the rights fees. Also the premier league/champions league rights will likely only cover the U.K. as there will be different deals in most countries.

BT spend c.£950m/year on 50 odd premier league games. If DAZN had that they’d need 10million subscribers just to cover that cost (at £10pm ex. VAT), let alone production, marketing and any other sports rights fees.

Plus boxing would end up taking a back seat yet again, with all the budget going towards the football.

[tony1234]

Just had a survey from DAZN regarding future plans and they were asking about PPV on DAZN, thought DAZN was going to be PPV free ?

[unknownman79]

Hope you clicked no to any ppvs. Dont want them getting any ideas.

nobody will be buying ppv from a service like dazn on top of subs just to watch whyte or chisora.

[maverick23]

Hope you clicked no to any ppvs. Dont want them getting any ideas.

nobody will be buying ppv from a service like dazn on top of subs just to watch whyte or chisora.

I agree re: guys like Whyte and Chisora. It’s a different story though for AJ (who they’ll no doubt be courting) and Fury (if he does fight Whyte next then it may go to purse bids).

Anyone outside of these guys and they shouldn’t even consider it in the U.K. but if it does happen then there should be some sort of discount for people who subscribe.

[tony1234]

Hope you clicked no to any ppvs. Dont want them getting any ideas.

nobody will be buying ppv from a service like dazn on top of subs just to watch whyte or chisora.

I said no way, the price increase each month puts me off let alone paying 20 quid or whatever extra for PPV's

[gregregegg]

If they are making a card that is impossible otherwise. AJ vs Fury, A deeeep stacked canelo card, Tank Vs Garcia, Crawford vs spence, i could cop it. But the fact the servay is asking if people would ppv for Ruiz vs whyte.... thats concerning.

[peter barlow]

On top of that, the price increase is kicking in now yet there is only 3 UK cards remaining this year and the next 2 are looking poor. You'd think with a price increase and them saving the Canelo pay things would be improving.

Im guessing Dillian Whyte Wallin is big purses.

[tony1234]

Interesting article about the merger in today's Private Eye and their latest accounts show a loss of $1.36billion despite an increase in revenue of 76%.
And in Serie A they paid 2.5Bn Euros for the rights but have had to refund subscriptions as the coverage is so bad due to buffering etc. The Italian media regulator is now involved with them.
It doesn't look like something built to last , just hope Blavatnik has deep pockets to keep it going

[Offthehook]

If this happened I wouldn’t be shocked if fw went to sky. I could see that happening

[Webbo911]

[Coco]

If this happened I wouldn’t be shocked if fw went to sky. I could see that happening

The promotional arrangements sky have in place now don't look up to much.

[tony1234]

I wonder how the contracts are written, if the PL is with BT and they sell then that might become void so DAZN might not get the football which is what they really want.
I'm not sure why they want to wait until next summer as is the rumour to buy them , surely if they wanted BT and the money was right do the deal now ?

[garethhop]

I wonder how the contracts are written, if the PL is with BT and they sell then that might become void so DAZN might not get the football which is what they really want.
I'm not sure why they want to wait until next summer as is the rumour to buy them , surely if they wanted BT and the money was right do the deal now ?

There will be a lot going on.

Premier League have to agree their rights being transferred and probably other sports too depending on the contracts, and the method of the buyout/takeover.

Presumably DAZN would go for something like Germany where they get a couple of branded linear channels on the Sky platform to show their content. It's not ideal for them because it costs them and puts them at Sky's control but we are absolutely conditioned in this country to watch Premier League on channels 401+ and that's where the money is.

By the way, this is all fast changing stuff. DAZN have already woken up to the challenges of actually making money from all of this, and they can't do it in the way that BT, Sky and Amazon did (in terms of flogging broadband to millions, other TV packages or even tvs like Sky are now doing, and just as an arm of retail for Amazon Prime).

They have focused in on Betting. But they are doing that just at the time that Government is pushing hard to decouple betting from football in the way that it is aggresively pushed now.

This will all take some time to play out.

[unknownman79]

Would be really surprised if dazn buy bt sport i dont think they can afford it. BT is a giant and dazn are amateur.

Probably helps both share prices with this talk.

[jamesmcdonnell]

BT only ever went into TV in the first place, because they were losing Broadband subscribers at an alarming rate to TalkTalk and Sky, amongst others.

They figured that without a triple play service (Broadband, TV and Phone) they would struggle to retain customers.

It's never been a primary focus of their business, and so it makes sense they would hive of the sports channel, as a premium channel, and then keep the remaining TV package. Those that want to keep it, will probably be offered a special deal for BT customers, as part of their agreement with Dazn, at least for a limited period of time.

The fact is though, boxing simply cannot work without the PPV model any longer, advertisers aren't interested enough, and even relatively mediocre fighters are expecting multi million pound paydays for every fight, it just doesn't stack up.

[Black Sam Bellamy]

What happens to the agreement if DAZN buy BT Sport and close the BT Sport brand. Is the contract nul and void ?

[garethhop]

What happens to the agreement if DAZN buy BT Sport and close the BT Sport brand. Is the contract nul and void ?

That's not how takeovers work. You can't just takeover assets and choose not to deal with liabilities.

All I would say is that DAZN's priority of whether they can put Kid Galahad on linear TV channels or whether they have to stick with Sunny Edwards instead, is likely to be slightly behind the question of how they will be showing the 52 premier league matches they can get hold of for each of the next two season, and behing again how they might be able to access a PPV platform which they could get hold of for Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

6 months this has been going on for. These things don't happen quickly.

[peter barlow]

The fact is though, boxing simply cannot work without the PPV model any longer, advertisers aren't interested enough, and even relatively mediocre fighters are expecting multi million pound paydays for every fight, it just doesn't stack up.

It can work but the elephant in the room is your last point. It can work if fighter purses weren't absurdly high.

It's a seesaw in that the higher fighter pay is the more fans(mostly working class) have to pay. And the less they we get for that money.

Look at Canelos undercard this weekend, awful but given he's on what a $40 million guarantee its difficult to get anything but bargain bucket undercard.

[jamesmcdonnell]

What happens to the agreement if DAZN buy BT Sport and close the BT Sport brand. Is the contract nul and void ?

That's not how takeovers work. You can't just takeover assets and choose not to deal with liabilities.

All I would say is that DAZN's priority of whether they can put Kid Galahad on linear TV channels or whether they have to stick with Sunny Edwards instead, is likely to be slightly behind the question of how they will be showing the 52 premier league matches they can get hold of for each of the next two season, and behing again how they might be able to access a PPV platform which they could get hold of for Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

6 months this has been going on for. These things don't happen quickly.

I'd imagine Francis is in line for a very hefty payday of Dazn wish to disburse with their obligation.

[maverick23]

What happens to the agreement if DAZN buy BT Sport and close the BT Sport brand. Is the contract nul and void ?

That's not how takeovers work. You can't just takeover assets and choose not to deal with liabilities.

All I would say is that DAZN's priority of whether they can put Kid Galahad on linear TV channels or whether they have to stick with Sunny Edwards instead, is likely to be slightly behind the question of how they will be showing the 52 premier league matches they can get hold of for each of the next two season, and behing again how they might be able to access a PPV platform which they could get hold of for Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

6 months this has been going on for. These things don't happen quickly.

I'd imagine Francis is in line for a very hefty payday of Dazn wish to disburse with their obligation.

The DAZN guys may not have even thought about Frank’s boxing on BT. Eddie may have mentioned it but they’ll be far more interested in the premier league, champions league. Then it will likely be UFC/WWE and maybe even the Rugby Union before resolving the boxing issue.

Whilst Frank will say the deal is watertight in my experience of TV contracts a network won’t give a watertight deal to a supplier without a get out clause. There will almost certainly be some sort of quality control or average viewer numbers in the deal so whoever takes over could just hold Frank more accountable for the quality of shows he’s been putting on and demand better or no shows.

[Spud]

My first thought when I saw the thread title was … how are Frank & Eddie going to get on.

My second thought is can DAZN really afford BT Sport?

[jamesmcdonnell]

My first thought when I saw the thread title was … how are Frank & Eddie going to get on.

My second thought is can DAZN really afford BT Sport?

Probably not on it's own, but DAZN is owned by Access Industries, which has pretty deep pockets.

It's clear that this is about the domestic football rights in the UK, and a slice of the Champions league no doubt, it's where the money is, but it's a big gamble for them.

DAZN has made some substantial losses recently, and we've seen these types of streaming services come and go before.

[mickey1975]

The bloke who owns it is the richest man in England . He has very deep pockets

[Frostieballs]

That's not how takeovers work. You can't just takeover assets and choose not to deal with liabilities.

All I would say is that DAZN's priority of whether they can put Kid Galahad on linear TV channels or whether they have to stick with Sunny Edwards instead, is likely to be slightly behind the question of how they will be showing the 52 premier league matches they can get hold of for each of the next two season, and behing again how they might be able to access a PPV platform which they could get hold of for Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

6 months this has been going on for. These things don't happen quickly.

I'd imagine Francis is in line for a very hefty payday of Dazn wish to disburse with their obligation.

The DAZN guys may not have even thought about Frank’s boxing on BT. Eddie may have mentioned it but they’ll be far more interested in the premier league, champions league. Then it will likely be UFC/WWE and maybe even the Rugby Union before resolving the boxing issue.

Whilst Frank will say the deal is watertight in my experience of TV contracts a network won’t give a watertight deal to a supplier without a get out clause. There will almost certainly be some sort of quality control or average viewer numbers in the deal so whoever takes over could just hold Frank more accountable for the quality of shows he’s been putting on and demand better or no shows.

It will all depend on whether BT Sports continues to exist as its own entity.

If they continue to broadcast for a period of time that covers existing contracts there won’t be an issue.

If they try and wind it all on from day one, it will be interesting if this scenario isn’t specifically covered in the contract.

Then you often get to the point where your position is as strong as the lawyers you hire.

[maverick23]

I'd imagine Francis is in line for a very hefty payday of Dazn wish to disburse with their obligation.

The DAZN guys may not have even thought about Frank’s boxing on BT. Eddie may have mentioned it but they’ll be far more interested in the premier league, champions league. Then it will likely be UFC/WWE and maybe even the Rugby Union before resolving the boxing issue.

Whilst Frank will say the deal is watertight in my experience of TV contracts a network won’t give a watertight deal to a supplier without a get out clause. There will almost certainly be some sort of quality control or average viewer numbers in the deal so whoever takes over could just hold Frank more accountable for the quality of shows he’s been putting on and demand better or no shows.

It will all depend on whether BT Sports continues to exist as its own entity.

If they continue to broadcast for a period of time that covers existing contracts there won’t be an issue.

If they try and wind it all on from day one, it will be interesting if this scenario isn’t specifically covered in the contract.

Then you often get to the point where your position is as strong as the lawyers you hire.

Yeah. DAZN may want to keep some of the linear channels but may well rebrand them to DAZN from BT.

If BT sport no longer exists then does Frank still have exclusivity? All depends on the language of the contract but I’d be amazed if DAZN wanted a Matchroom show on those channels that were BT and they couldn’t force it through.