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DAZN takes swing at PPV, but combat sports just a start

Middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez (right) signed an 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN.Getty Images

In a 30-second commercial spot that aired nationally during NFL, NBA and college football telecasts in recent weeks, iconic ring announcer Michael Buffer reads from an index card, trumpeting DAZN’s broadcast of Canelo Alvarez’s Dec. 15 fight against little-known Brit Rocky Fielding. DAZN, the recently launched direct-to-consumer network, will offer the bout for free to viewers who sign up for a 30-day trial of the service, which is regularly priced at $9.99 a month.

 

When Buffer suggests that the offer must be a misprint, it leads to an exchange with Alvarez, who insists three times in Spanish that, yes, he is done with pay-per-view, where he has been for nine of his last 10 fights.

 

“Pay-per-view is totally screwed,” Buffer says as the spot concludes.

 

That’s the grenade DAZN tossed at the boxing establishment two months ago when it signed Alvarez, the sport’s leading pay-per-view attraction, to an 11-fight, $365 million deal that promises to include all of his fights as part of the monthly subscription.

 

The pitch that DAZN makes to U.S. fight fans is based on a value proposition that challenges the pay-per-view underpinnings of both boxing and MMA. Fight fans have a long history of paying for premium programming. Because rights to fighters and fights typically have been sold piecemeal, combat sports are a natural place for a startup network to turn for live events.

 

Following that playbook, DAZN launched in the U.S. in September with a programming menu made up mostly of combat, fed by deals with U.K.-based boxing promoter Matchroom and MMA promoter Bellator.

 

DAZN executives are quick to point out that its combat-heavy launch is only a starting point. Last month, the network announced a streaming deal with MLB that will allow it to create a nightly live whip-around show targeted at cord-cutters.

 

“We are not here to be a fight-sports niche broadcaster,” said Joe Markowski, executive vice president of North America for DAZN. “It’s very much an entry strategy for us. … Sure, we want to dominate fight sports. But we’re not just going to stick to fight sports.

 

“If we can do a job with the content we’ve got right now and meet our target, my board will give me the firepower … [to] make serious moves for major domestic content. And Dec. 15 is very much the start of that for us.”

 

Skeptics of DAZN’s combat rollout say that while the network is entering at a point of great disruption in boxing, leading content providers Top Rank and Premier Boxing Champions already are locked in to long-term deals with ESPN and Fox, respectively. While DAZN is the favorite to land free agent Gennady Golovkin — who Alvarez beat in his most recent bout on Sept. 15 — after that it may find a dearth of marketable fighters.

 

Even with DAZN bidding aggressively, Showtime and Fox have held strong by dangling lucrative paydays from traditional pay-per-view, which is where Showtime will take Manny Pacquiao’s January fight against Adrien Broner. It’s also where Fox will put a March show featuring Errol Spence Jr. against Mikey Garcia and where ESPN likely will turn later next year.

 

“One thing that those of us in the subscription service business know is that you need consistency of high-quality programming,” said Stephen Espinoza, Showtime president of sports and event programming. “One or two or even three or four tentpole events a year is not a recipe for success. Whether it’s on a traditional platform or a streaming platform, there has to be a year-round consistent supply of quality programming.”

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