STREAMING giants DAZN have announced a shock plan to rival Sky Sports and BT Sport for Premier League TV rights – but fans are far from impressed.
DAZN confirmed securing rights to Prem football is a ‘high-priority’ for the company.
The streaming giants are one of boxing’s main broadcasters and have even snatched former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua from rivals Sky.
And they plan on doing the same but with Prem football, rivalling both Sky and BT.
DAZN already forks out £747million a season to host the domestic rights for Serie A football.
They also have a ten-year worldwide deal with NFL worth close to £840m.
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DAZN chief executive Shay Segev says plans to get Prem football are well underway.
Speaking to The Times, he said: “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.
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“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.”
Segev says DAZN taking on English top-flight football would further boost revenue.
He 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 have time to put together their bid ahead of next year’s auction that will see rights for the 2025-28 seasons decided.
The current deal running from 2022 and running until 2025 and is worth a whopping £4.8billion.
The Daily Mail state that there is concern that the Premier League would be unhappy with more than three media outlets hosting the rights.
That could mean one of Sky, BT, or Amazon would have to drop out.
However, DAZN’s announcement has left fans groaning.
Sports fans are already paying for Sky, BT and in the festive season, Amazon.
One said on Twitter: “The Premier League need to go on their own. Make their own app and leave the rest behind imo.”
Another tweeted: “Hope they don’t get it.
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“They charge £20 a month for boxing alone. Imagine if they got PL games.”
A third added: “Once it gets some other sports rights which it will and sort out being available in pubs DAZN will be a monster company.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
