Mixed martial arts lead to the largest change in practice in martial arts history. Where martial arts was previously a practice in which every approach was better than average, the best, in fact, MMA introduced a concept as simple as wheels on luggage – if you want to know what fighting techniques are superior, then fight.
Over-the-top media services are another game changer. Instead of consuming content via television, streaming media is now available directly to consumers over the Internet. If you use Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon video, that’s OTT. Where once you had to wait for a movie to appear on cable or a television network, now it’s all available, all the time, on an app.
DAZN (it’s pronounced Da Zone) aims to be ‘The Netflix of sports’, and is entering the US market via combat sports. Until recently, major live boxing matches and MMA fights were available via television (FOX, FOX Sports 1, Paramount, AXS, etc) or for the biggest events via pay-per-view television. Perform Group’s DAZN will be bringing Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, World Boxing Super Series, and Bellator MMA direct to consumers via their app, for $9.99 per month.
“We have an absolute conviction that there’s a value play in this market around fight sports,” said DAZN CEO James Rushton to Michael McCarthy for Perform Group’s Sporting News. “We can do that because we don’t have the overhead associated with a big network like ESPN. Part of it was very much thinking about how badly screwed U.S. fight fans have been over the past 30 years by pay-per-view fights. I was talking to Eddie (Hearn). It actually has, in my opinion, broken the U.S. fight eco-system.”
“[The DAZN cost] is basically one-and-a-half pay-per-views (per year) … So the whole idea of creating a better deal for fight fans is something we absolutely care about. And pricing is a really important part of that.”
Perfom’s executive chairman John Skipper is a former president of ESPN, and aims to disrupt the pay-per-view model, and in doing so, challenge HBO, Showtime, his former employer, and other combat sports competitors.
“It is a fabulous economic proposition,” argues Skipper. “Do you want to pay $100 to see a pay-per-view fight? Or do you want to get a $100-a-year subscription to a service, and get 100 fights and some mixed martial arts and some other content? It’s a great economic proposition. There’s no reason that a million people won’t say yes to that.”
Skipper argues that the PPV model is hurting combat sports.
“It limits the market,” he said. “There’s never but a handful of fighters who can do that. Nobody knows about any of the other fighters. It becomes hard to keep the pipeline going. Everybody agrees this works better for everybody — except maybe the promoter who’s going to get paid $200 million for one evening’s boxing.”
Bellator MMA Scott Coker was equally positive.
“I think it’s a great value,” said Coker. “Our fight card honestly last year was $60 on pay-per-view. Now you can watch it for $9.99 a month.”
The DAZN argument is notably less compelling for the hardcore MMA fanbase than it is for boxing aficionados. DAZN will stream 22 Bellator events, but 15 are already available on Paramount. Thus there will be seven events exclusive to DAZN. $120 per year for seven Bellator events is not real likely to get 1,000,000 buyers from the MMA space. However, there is, of course, fan crossover between MMA fans and boxing, and some too between boxing fans and MMA, although anecdotallly less. And DAZN is on the right side of history.
DAZN will debut in the USA with world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin on Sept. 22, at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The first Bellator MMA card will Sept. 29, with Gegard Mousasi taking on Rory MacDonald from the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. Ring announcer Michael Buffer has signed an exclusive deal with DAZN.
Get ready.
