DAZN Estimated 4m Subscibers

[Ruthless-RKO]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenh ... f66ece1427

Leading DAZN is former ESPN president John Skipper, who was hired last May to oversee the operations of DAZN’s parent company, Perform Group. “This was potentially a very big opportunity because of first-mover advantage,” Skipper says in his office at DAZN’s New York headquarters in the Financial District. “I think there is the possibility of building a company with a very significant value.”

Buying sports media rights and launching an OTT service are both wildly expensive and risky. Disney says it will lose $650 million each of the next two years on its version, ESPN+. The worldwide leader in sports hopes to attract 12 million subscribers by 2024, up from the current 2 million-plus. AT&T’s B/R Live is also a big player in the U.S., while just about every sports property from the WWE to UFC to NBA has its own OTT service.

DAZN is also bleeding red ink as it builds out its technology and snaps up rights. Its media rights bills are well over $1 billion annually. But Skipper, who negotiated several league deals at ESPN, expects new markets to be profitable after four to five years.

DAZN has built a sizable war chest, selling a minority stake to Japanese ad firm Dentsu in 2018 and unloading the business-to-business piece of DAZN Group last month to Vista Equity Partners. “We are not trying to raise our next round of $20 million,” Skipper says. The company’s main bankroll is Ukrainian-born Len Blavatnik, who is DAZN’s majority owner and is worth $18 billion.

“I met him at breakfast, and he asked me if I wanted to do this,” Skipper says. “That’s the benefit you can have as an entrepreneur of means.”

Three years ago, the streaming service launched in Austria, Germany, Japan and Switzerland with an array of top-tier soccer programming—including England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga. It will add Brazil this month as its ninth country for subscribers. DAZN controls most of the important live rights to sports in Japan, as well as soccer league Serie A in Italy and Champions League in Germany. The Serie A rights got a boost last summer when global soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo joined Turin-based Juventus F.C. DAZN added Ronaldo as its first global ambassador in August under a two-and-a-half-year partnership.

DAZN currently has more than a million subscribers in Japan. The company won’t reveal global totals, but Forbes estimates they exceed 4 million, well ahead of the 2 million-plus Walt Disney reported last month for ESPN+.

Alvarez’s inaugural fight with DAZN in December drove hundreds of thousands of people to sign up for the service, but barely half of them stuck around beyond the one-month free trial to pay the $9.99 monthly rate. More than 90% of customers who cancelled the service said another Alvarez fight is what would get them to pay.

In response, DAZN launched a new pricing plan to fix the retention issue. Free trials in the U.S. are no longer offered and the monthly rate has doubled to $19.99. DAZN introduced a $100 yearly plan, which is a fraction of what two Canelo PPV fights would have typically cost. “We are trying to drive people to a yearlong subscription,” says Skipper. “If you figure out a way to get people to buy for a year, you have 100% retention for the year.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

1 Million just in Japan.
They're not releasing global figures.

I have seen on other forums, that 4m is a crap number.

[oogiebe]

1 Million just in Japan.
They're not releasing global figures.

I have seen on other forums, that 4m is a crap number.

Still under 100k in the US. That's the market that'll never produce for them. I think it's barely over 80K at this point.

[jamamb]

1 Million just in Japan.
They're not releasing global figures.

I have seen on other forums, that 4m is a crap number.

how do those ppl know its wrong

[Ruthless-RKO]

Still under 100k in the US. That's the market that'll never produce for them. I think it's barely over 80K at this point.

Yeh, if they had decent subs figures in the US, they would proudly announce it. But they're not.

[Onekrazyrican]

I really hope the model works. I have a pirate streaming service that picks up and shows DAZN events but i still chipped in with my yearly membership to support it. Its too hard to keep up if you are a mere mortal like me at $60 for a PPV card if you are a fight fan (including MMA). I have no problem with robbing the greedy bastards like Arum and Dana White by streaming their $60 cards for free but DAZN's model definitely deserves support. I really hope they make it.

[Onetimeonly]

1 Million just in Japan.
They're not releasing global figures.

I have seen on other forums, that 4m is a crap number.

I've heard under 100k, though that should go way up today.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I've heard under 100k, though that should go way up today.

It's explained that why they changed their price strategy. Either pay for a full year or $19 for a month.

They saw hundred thousands subs for Canelo vs. Fielding, then lost a lot after.

I don't see why they shouldn't see a big spike in subs this weekend.

Had the bout been on HBO ppv, how many people would have paid $75 to watch it? Just less than 1 million?

On DAZN, they're charging no more than $20 for it.

[Onekrazyrican]

It's explained that why they changed their price strategy. Either pay for a full year or $19 for a month.

They saw hundred thousands subs for Canelo vs. Fielding, then lost a lot after.

I don't see why they shouldn't see a big spike in subs this weekend.

Had the bout been on HBO ppv, how many people would have paid $75 to watch it? Just less than 1 million?

On DAZN, they're charging no more than $20 for it.

Exactly. Thats what id really like others to see. Millions watch for free on illegal streams but Im pretty sure a majority of those would buy if it was $15 or an affordable rate. An average fight nowadays would do about 100,000 to 200,000 buys. I heard Crawford-Khan did like 150 Im pretty sure more than a million watched for free. 150k x 60 its 12 millions but adding the free loaders would it make at least 1.150 millions? At $15 it would be more than $17 millions

[Onetimeonly]

It's explained that why they changed their price strategy. Either pay for a full year or $19 for a month.

They saw hundred thousands subs for Canelo vs. Fielding, then lost a lot after.

I don't see why they shouldn't see a big spike in subs this weekend.

Had the bout been on HBO ppv, how many people would have paid $75 to watch it? Just less than 1 million?

On DAZN, they're charging no more than $20 for it.

I love dazn, they'll get a ton here. Might be less than would have bought it on Ppv. Casual fans aren't bothering with streaming devices. Smart date for Joshua. Hell get those canelo sign ups too.

[Onetimeonly]

Exactly. Thats what id really like others to see. Millions watch for free on illegal streams but Im pretty sure a majority of those would buy if it was $15 or an affordable rate. An average fight nowadays would do about 100,000 to 200,000 buys. I heard Crawford-Khan did like 150 Im pretty sure more than a million watched for free. 150k x 60 its 12 millions but adding the free loaders would it make at least 1.150 millions? At $15 it would be more than $17 millions

Streams are less reliable now than they were 15 years ago. Before that there were illegal cable boxes. Nothing new.

[Thomastearns]

I really hope the model works. I have a pirate streaming service that picks up and shows DAZN events but i still chipped in with my yearly membership to support it. Its too hard to keep up if you are a mere mortal like me at $60 for a PPV card if you are a fight fan (including MMA). I have no problem with robbing the greedy bastards like Arum and Dana White by streaming their $60 cards for free but DAZN's model definitely deserves support. I really hope they make it.

Great post!

You know it sounds crazy but perhaps they can actually pull this off!

Despite the head spinning investment involved it's not totally beyond the bounds of reason.

[Thomastearns]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenh ... f66ece1427

Leading DAZN is former ESPN president John Skipper, who was hired last May to oversee the operations of DAZN’s parent company, Perform Group. “This was potentially a very big opportunity because of first-mover advantage,” Skipper says in his office at DAZN’s New York headquarters in the Financial District. “I think there is the possibility of building a company with a very significant value.”

Buying sports media rights and launching an OTT service are both wildly expensive and risky. Disney says it will lose $650 million each of the next two years on its version, ESPN+. The worldwide leader in sports hopes to attract 12 million subscribers by 2024, up from the current 2 million-plus. AT&T’s B/R Live is also a big player in the U.S., while just about every sports property from the WWE to UFC to NBA has its own OTT service.

DAZN is also bleeding red ink as it builds out its technology and snaps up rights. Its media rights bills are well over $1 billion annually. But Skipper, who negotiated several league deals at ESPN, expects new markets to be profitable after four to five years.

DAZN has built a sizable war chest, selling a minority stake to Japanese ad firm Dentsu in 2018 and unloading the business-to-business piece of DAZN Group last month to Vista Equity Partners. “We are not trying to raise our next round of $20 million,” Skipper says. The company’s main bankroll is Ukrainian-born Len Blavatnik, who is DAZN’s majority owner and is worth $18 billion.

“I met him at breakfast, and he asked me if I wanted to do this,” Skipper says. “That’s the benefit you can have as an entrepreneur of means.”

Three years ago, the streaming service launched in Austria, Germany, Japan and Switzerland with an array of top-tier soccer programming—including England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga. It will add Brazil this month as its ninth country for subscribers. DAZN controls most of the important live rights to sports in Japan, as well as soccer league Serie A in Italy and Champions League in Germany. The Serie A rights got a boost last summer when global soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo joined Turin-based Juventus F.C. DAZN added Ronaldo as its first global ambassador in August under a two-and-a-half-year partnership.

DAZN currently has more than a million subscribers in Japan. The company won’t reveal global totals, but Forbes estimates they exceed 4 million, well ahead of the 2 million-plus Walt Disney reported last month for ESPN+.

Alvarez’s inaugural fight with DAZN in December drove hundreds of thousands of people to sign up for the service, but barely half of them stuck around beyond the one-month free trial to pay the $9.99 monthly rate. More than 90% of customers who cancelled the service said another Alvarez fight is what would get them to pay.

In response, DAZN launched a new pricing plan to fix the retention issue. Free trials in the U.S. are no longer offered and the monthly rate has doubled to $19.99. DAZN introduced a $100 yearly plan, which is a fraction of what two Canelo PPV fights would have typically cost. “We are trying to drive people to a yearlong subscription,” says Skipper. “If you figure out a way to get people to buy for a year, you have 100% retention for the year.”

Thanks for the post. It's really difficult to make any sense of the sheer scale of investment going on behind the scenes.

$650 million losses per year for Disney?

5 year plan for ESPN+?

$1 billion+ per year media rights for DAZN?

Staggering stuff. Mind you I thought Disney were crazy when they bought Marvel for $4 billion+ way back in 2009.

[JimJim2009]

Skipper. “If you figure out a way to get people to buy for a year, you have 100% retention for the year.”

Make a significant heavyweight title fight then ffs !

[Onetimeonly]

Thanks for the post. It's really difficult to make any sense of the sheer scale of investment going on behind the scenes.

$650 million losses per year for Disney?

5 year plan for ESPN+?

$1 billion+ per year media rights for DAZN?

Staggering stuff. Mind you I thought Disney were crazy when they bought Marvel for $4 billion+ way back in 2009.

ESPN is not reliant on boxing. They have the UFC exclusively and that will help gain boxing viewers. Plus all their other sports and it's 5 a month.

[KiwiRider]

Skipper. “If you figure out a way to get people to buy for a year, you have 100% retention for the year.”

Make a significant heavyweight title fight then ffs !

Nice one
Yeah, that's an ideal world I'd like to live in.

[keirw]

Pretty sure that football/soccer is the main subscription driver in their European market.

I'm sure Canelo gave them a boost in subscriptions as will Joshua vs Wilder, if that ever gets made. But relying on a handful of fights a year to get subscribers is a risky business.

They will need to get some of the big sports in order drive up US figures, if that happens they may bin off boxing as it's more hassle than it is worth.

[Onetimeonly]

Pretty sure that football/soccer is the main subscription driver in their European market.

I'm sure Canelo gave them a boost in subscriptions as will Joshua vs Wilder, if that ever gets made. But relying on a handful of fights a year to get subscribers is a risky business.

They will need to get some of the big sports in order drive up US figures, if that happens they may bin off boxing as it's more hassle than it is worth.

If they pay out for Joshua/wilder I'd be astounded. All the big us sports have their own network. I'm surprised how poorly they've done, but then again HBO quit boxing because Americans don't care about it. Why would people that didn't watch it then buy a year?

[KiwiRider]

Skipper. “If you figure out a way to get people to buy for a year, you have 100% retention for the year.”

Make a significant heavyweight title fight then ffs !

Nice one
Yeah, that's an ideal world I'd like to live in.

[greg]

..as attractive as their business model seems to look like, the fact that DAZN doesn't disclose its global numbers and has recently increased its monthly subscription fees leads me to assume that their current state of affairs is not what they would like us to believe ..

[oogiebe]

The fighters will be paid somewhere between $45 and $48 million combined for the fight (Canelo/Jacobs). How in God's name is DAZN ever going to get into the black is beyond me.

[Onetimeonly]

..as attractive as their business model seems to look like, the fact that DAZN doesn't disclose its global numbers and has recently increased its monthly subscription fees leads me to assume that their current state of affairs is not what they would like us to believe ..

They're making haymon look frugal. Joshua fighting here and the payout for Miller shows hearn is feeling heat.

[Ilya Muromets]

3,999,999. They forgot to subtract me when i cancelled.

[Onetimeonly]

3,999,999. They forgot to subtract me when i cancelled.

Good for you, a kid shouldn't spend his allowance to sit in front of a computer.

[tiny_acres]

3,999,999. They forgot to subtract me when i cancelled.