Sports Streaming Site DAZN Thumps Monthly Users With 100% Price Hike

(Bloomberg) -- DAZN, the boxing-heavy streaming service that’s trying to gain traction in the U.S., is tweaking its pricing to coax fans to purchase one-year subscriptions.

Starting next week, the monthly rate will double to $19.99 from $9.99, Executive Vice President Joseph Markowski said in a letter on the company’s website. The annual pass will be $99.99, cheaper than the current monthly rate.

For DAZN, pronounced “da-zone,” the goal is to sign more long-term customers, a possible way to stave off the monthly churn that dogs streaming services, and raise the price for viewers who parachute in for a major fight once or twice a year. Existing customers will keep their current prices for the next year.

The company has invested over $1 billion in U.S. content in the past year, mostly in boxing. It has a $1 billion partnership with Matchroom Boxing, and has signed long-term deals with both Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin. It also recently won the rights to a nightly baseball show featuring live look-ins.

The company is backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik. John Skipper, the former president of ESPN, is its executive chairman.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum

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