DAZN prepare to rival Sky, BT and Amazon for Premier League TV rights

There could be another broadcaster for English football fans to subscribe to after DAZN confirmed securing rights to Premier League football is a ‘high-priority’ for the company. 

Currently recognised for being one of boxing’s main broadcasters and bursting into the ring after taking Anthony Joshua away from Sky, DAZN now wants to break into the English top-flight in a bid to grow their UK audience.

The London-founded company has quickly surged to 20million subscribers around the world but is lesser-known domestically for their services. 

However, there is inside belief that positioning themselves alongside Sky, BT Sport, and Amazon Prime for a Premier League broadcasting deal could help make DAZN a household name.

The ambitious media company already forks out £747m per season to host the domestic rights for Serie A football and has again showed their willing to challenge the traditional broadcasters after securing a ten-year worldwide deal with NFL worth close to £840m.

DAZN have confirmed that they intend to bid for rights to broadcast Premier League football

The Premier League currently holds domestic deals with Sky, BT Sport, and Amazon Prime

DAZN chief executive Shay Segev revealed plans to host Premier League football on their platform was well underway, telling The Times: ‘Football is obviously very big in the UK and EPL is an option on our menu. If the question is do we have any ambition to go to this market, the answer is of course yes. And it’s not only ambition it’s a high priority on my list.

‘DAZN is a sports service and clearly we will try to get bigger packages but the maths needs to work.

‘The question is the economic situation, the competition and whether we will be in a position to be strong enough to position ourselves as the best. I am very, very confident that in the mid to long-term we can be a big player in the UK.

‘Whether this takes, two years, five years, seven years, time will tell.’

He also explained how a deal to share profits with the Premier League that would see the body earn a base income and further boost revenue by subscriptions would be a positive for reducing conflict.

Segev explained:  ‘In the old world there is a conflict of interest between the [sports] and the broadcasters. We don’t want competition and we want to pay the least we can. The new world is a partnership deal, a revenue-sharing deal.

‘The clubs and leagues expect to get a specific level, then we can come in and guarantee some level of revenues and are also looking for the upside as well and we will be focused on the upside.’  

DAZN believe that they can challenge the current broadcasters when the auction opens next year

Should DAZN be successful then it would represent another service consumers have to pay for

Segev and DAZN have time to put together their bid ahead of next year’s auction that will see rights for the 2025-28 seasons dished out by the Premier League, but would require huge backing to compete with the current broadcasting heavyweights.

The current deal running from 2022 and running until 2025 is worth £4.8billion, averaging £1.66 billion per-year after the Premier League renewed their TV rights deal with existing broadcasters. 

However, while an auction could see DAZN squeeze in on the action, there is concern that the Premier League would be unhappy with more than three media outlets hosting the rights, meaning one of either Sky, BT, or Amazon would have to drop out.

The biggest area for concern is the expense incurred by viewers should they have to subscribe to another service to watch their team play. Consumers paying to watch on all three existing providers currently have to splash out on average over £100-a-month to watch Premier League football.