Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Eddie Hearn is throwing his hat into the U.S. streaming arms race.
The British promoter’s American initiative, Matchroom Boxing USA, is set to announce on Thursday in New York a major streaming partnership with the fledging service DAZN, multiple sources with knowledge of the deal told THE RING.
It’s a four-year deal with a four-year option, and the plan calls for Matchroom Sport to stream 40 fight cards per year. Sixteen of those will be staged in the U.S., with the other 24 taking place in the U.K., where Hearn resides as the most prominent promoter in the market.
Each fight card Matchroom Boxing USA streams is expected to carry a seven-figure license fee, which will ostensibly allow DAZN (pronounce Da Zone) to compete with HBO, Showtime and ESPN as a fourth major player in the American boxing landscape. Hearn didn’t return a text message seeking comment from THE RING.
It was announced earlier Tuesday that former ESPN president John Skipper accepted a position with Perform Group as the sports media company’s executive chairman. Perform Group owns DAZN, and also the longtime publication Sporting News, which is now digital only.
DAZN has been referred to as the Netflix of Sports, and just last year, it expanded into Canada boasting exclusive NFL streaming rights. Skipper’s appointment indicates they plan to enter the U.S. market and begin gobbling up TV rights stateside.
Most major American sports leagues are already aligned with a network, and that’s where boxing comes in. Hearn’s stable, headlined by Anthony Joshua, could be DAZN’s first key acquisition, though Joshua is unlikely to appear on the platform. The heavyweight champion, and boxing’s biggest global star, rakes in piles of money as a pay-per-view attraction in the U.K.
The large license fees Hearn will be armed with should help him sign American fighters to compete on DAZN. Hearn signed Daniel Jacobs last year to spearhead Matchroom Boxing USA, but the middleweight contender is currently aligned with HBO. DAZN also figures to finally allow U.S. fight fans to watch Matchroom’s fights that are televised on Sky Sports in the U.K.
Hearn has since staged two fights under the Matchroom Boxing USA banner, both headlined by Jacobs in New York, and each featuring heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller on the televised undercard. Jacobs outpointed Maciej Sulecki on April 28 in the most recent show, and after testing the waters, Hearn is ready to expand.
There’s a slew of Al Haymon-managed fighters who are promotional free agents, and the British promoter has his eye on many of them, according to sources, with fighters like Jermell Charlo, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter among the targets.
The development comes on the heels of the direct-to-consumer app, ESPN+, which offers Top Rank’s stable of fighters in live fights for $4.99 a month. ESPN launched the app last month, and showed its first fight shortly thereafter with Amir Khan-Phil Lo Greco, a Matchroom Sport show.
That was a minor fight, but ESPN+ is set to ramp up its offerings, beginning with Terence Crawford’s welterweight title challenge of Jeff Horn on June 9. Many more shows are ticketed for ESPN+ in addition to shoulder programming set to debut this week ahead of the Jorge Linares-Vasiliy Lomachenko fight on Saturday in New York.
DAZN usually costs about $20 a month, but it’s unclear at this time what the price-point will be when it debuts stateside. For now, one thing is clear: Hearn is ready to flex his muscle in America.
https://www.ringtv.com/535311-eddie-hearn-set-announce-major-u-s-streaming-partnership-dazn/
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Eddie Hearn to assemble 'biggest stable of fighters ever seen' after striking $1 billion deal with online streaming giant
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/boxing/2...seen-striking/
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Sky Sports will broadcast 16 live and exclusive fight nights a year from the United States as part of a new deal with long-term partners Matchroom Boxing.
The new agreement means that, in addition to the best of British boxing, Sky Sports viewers will enjoy fights from some of the biggest names in boxing from some of the most iconic venues across America, with more access to fighters, exclusive interviews, blogs and podcasts, available across all Sky Sports platforms.
Fight nights will be scheduled to begin at 6pm US time, meaning the action will kick off at 11pm in the UK when fights are scheduled on the East Coast. Up to six fights will be scheduled on every bill.
http://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/11366623/sky-sports-boxing-to-show-16-more-us-fights-per-year-with-matchroom-boxing
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Somehow everything is going to have to run together. You can’t expect fight fans to get HBO, Showtime, ESPN+ and now this new Hearn thing. I love the idea of it, but we need to get rid of HBO and Showtime and pay specifically for boxing fights.
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
HBO and Showtime can't compete with this long term, this is the future of Sports viewing just like Netflix or Amazon Prime is for Movies and Boxsets.
Eddie Hearn is gonna sign up all the best fighters in the world and has the budget and platform to do so.
This is HUGE news for the future of Boxing and this is an 8 year deal that will simply blow the competition out the water in time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_76YyvntvtE
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Aha good, I already have dazn, this should put more stuff ton the Canadian version too... They already had joshua parker on there and a few more.
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Quote:
Originally Posted by
smashup
HBO and Showtime can't compete with this long term, this is the future of Sports viewing just like Netflix or Amazon Prime is for Movies and Boxsets.
Eddie Hearn is gonna sign up all the best fighters in the world and has the budget and platform to do so.
This is HUGE news for the future of Boxing and this is an 8 year deal that will simply blow the competition out the water in time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_76YyvntvtE
I really hope so. It would make boxing much more accessible and more fights around the world accessible.
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Sounds good as long as the right fights are made
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Wilder, Spence. Garcia, Charlo, Thurman.....
These are just a few of the fighters from the US that currently are not tied to any promotional deals so i'd expect Hearn to sign up the majority of these in the coming weeks.
Also Anthony Joshua is now a free agent in the US and Dazn/Perform Group will simply outbid any other US offers and snap him up as well (I'd be amazed if that isn't announced soon)
Hope Hearn signs up Wilder too so the fight gets made
If your a World class fighter and a free agent you'd be a fool not to wanna be a part of this especially knowing they have more finance to throw at fights than HBO and Showtime combined.
Hearn has just moved the goalposts big time :cool:
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Mick Hennessy and Channel 5 boxing will be their main competitors.
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
Quote:
Originally Posted by
smashup
Wilder, Spence. Garcia, Charlo, Thurman.....
These are just a few of the fighters from the US that currently are not tied to any promotional deals so i'd expect Hearn to sign up the majority of these in the coming weeks.
Also Anthony Joshua is now a free agent in the US and Dazn/Perform Group will simply outbid any other US offers and snap him up as well (I'd be amazed if that isn't announced soon)
Hope Hearn signs up Wilder too so the fight gets made
If your a World class fighter and a free agent you'd be a fool not to wanna be a part of this especially knowing they have more finance to throw at fights than HBO and Showtime combined.
Hearn has just moved the goalposts big time :cool:
Seems like the only way Wilder can get Joshua and the only way Charlo can get Jacobs. Because Eddie has been vocal about wanting both. Hopefully it greases the wheels, rather than becoming a roadblock
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
I hope it works out sweet.
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
We really need this in the us. I had showtime and hbo for boxing but got tired of paying 30 bucks a month and waiting for the occasional boxing match. I watch them on YouTube but you guys know watching live boxing is a different feel.
Re: Eddie hearn set to announce major u.s. Streaming partnership with dazn
“We have seen in music with Spotfiy and TV with Netflix and Amazon that people will pay a sensible amount of money for a good service,” said the Perform chief executive, Simon Denyer. “We want to be a Netflix for sport.”
Denyer said the company has the financial firepower to be a real threat. He adds that when the hugely anticipated heavyweight fight between Joshua and Deontay Wilder is finally scheduled, it intends to out punch HBO and Showtime for the exclusive US rights – which would be a mammoth coup. “If the fight happens we want to show it on DAZN and have a significant budget to negotiate it to get it on the platform,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...ng-eddie-hearn
