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Global digital sports media company DAZN is seeking to end its Uefa Champions League broadcast partnership in Southeast Asia a year early.
The rights to European soccer's elite club competition, and the second-tier Europa League, were acquired by DAZN for the 2018 to 2021 cycle in a contract covering Japan, as well as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
Whilst DAZN launched one of its first over-the-top (OTT) subscription services in Japan it never went live with a platform in the other markets. As recently as March 2019 DAZN was still intent on entering those territories but ultimately did not and instead had to sublicense those soccer rights – making a loss on the investment.
Where it was not possible to air matches on DAZN, games were shown on Facebook and YouTube, as well as on Goal.com, the DAZN-owned soccer portal.
SportsPro understands that DAZN has now informed Uefa and its Team Marketing agency that it wants to exit those contracts before their final 2020/21 season. However, DAZN has agreed with Uefa to make all remaining matches from this season's European club competitions this August available in Japan and South East Asia.
DAZN’s growth strategy has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. It saw the UK-based company inform rights holders it would not pay for undelivered content and reportedly seek extra investment to strengthen its position in existing core markets.
SportsPro understands that DAZN has also abandoned its Brazilian broadcast partnership for Serie A, Italian soccer’s top flight, as part of that realignment strategy.
It was also reported that the group entered into talks with US investment firm TPG about selling the Goal.com platform as it seeks to raise funds.
However, DAZN is still developing its business. It recently expanded its domestic broadcast partnership with German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga and announced plans to move forward with its boxing-centric global OTT service.
Global digital sports media company DAZN is seeking to end its Uefa Champions League broadcast partnership for Southeast Asia a year early.
The rights to European soccer's elite club competition, and the second-tier Europa League, were acquired by DAZN for the 2018 to 2021 cycle in a contract covering Japan, as well as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
Whilst DAZN launched one of its first over-the-top (OTT) subscription services in Japan it never went live a platform in the other markets. As recently as March 2019 DAZN was still intent on entering those territories but ultimately did not and instead had to sublicense those soccer rights – making a loss on the investment.
Where that was not possible DAZN, games were shown on Facebook and YouTube, as well as on Goal.com, the DAZN-owned soccer portal.
SportsPro understands that DAZN has now informed Uefa and its Team Marketing agency that it wants to exit those contracts before their final 2020/21 season.
With DAZN’s growth strategy has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. It has seen the UK-based company inform rights holders it would not pay for undelivered content and reportedly seek extra investment to strengthen its position in existing core markets.
SportsPro understands that DAZN has abandoned its Brazilian broadcast partnership for Serie A, Italian soccer’ top flight, as part of that realignment strategy.
It was also reported that the group entered into talks with US investment firm TPG about selling the Goal.com platform as it seeks to raise funds.
However, DAZN is still developing its business. It recently expanded its domestic broadcast partnership with German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga and announced plans to move forward with its boxing-centric global OTT service.
