The Guardian: With a global presence, DAZN plans to bid for Champions League broadcast rights in the 2027-2031 cycle

On October 23, according to the "Guardian" report, DAZN plans to bid for the global broadcast rights of the Champions League in the 2027-2031 cycle.

Saudi Surj Sports Investment Company acquired a 10% stake in DAZN in February this year for US$1 billion (approximately 746.94 million pounds). Two months ago, the streaming platform agreed to pay the same amount to FIFA for exclusive global rights to the Club World Cup. DAZN claimed that the Club World Cup attracted 2.7 billion views, a figure that refers to total views rather than unique viewers, and received 10 billion interactions on social media.

Encouraged by these data, DAZN hopes to obtain the global broadcast rights of the Champions League during the 2027-31 season cycle. This is the first time UEFA has provided a global broadcast rights package, and the winning platform will have the right to select the Tuesday games in each round for global live broadcast. It is said that UC3, a joint venture between European Football Club (formerly known as the European Club Association) and UEFA, believes that the global broadcast rights of a single game are worth about 440 million pounds per year, accounting for about 10% of the valuation of all Champions League games, which means that the four-year broadcast rights are worth about 1.76 billion pounds.

The bidding process is handled by the American company Relevent Sports and aims to attract the participation of streaming media companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney+. Although DAZN pulled out of the French TV rights deal this year and is seeking to renegotiate the Belgian deal, it still intends to bid.

DAZN is one of the few companies with the technology and global coverage capabilities to successfully conduct global live streaming, and they broadcast 63 matches of the Club World Cup without any problems. Although attendance in England was more limited, it was a notable success in Brazil, with FIFA reporting that 131 million people watched the event, representing 62% of the country's population. According to analysis conducted by Nielsen Sports for FIFA, the Club World Cup was watched by 28 million people in Italy and 24 million people in Spain, reflecting the strong foothold DAZN has established in these two countries, in part due to its rights to Serie A and La Liga.

DAZN’s interest in the Champions League comes at a time when it appears to be reducing investment elsewhere. A company insider said the instructions from major shareholders Len Blavatnik's Access Industries and Surj were to make the company profitable. Another source said DAZN was asked to cut costs after the Club World Cup, but Blavatnik and Surj were willing to make big investments for major events like the Champions League.

In order to save money, DAZN notified the Belgian First Division two weeks ago that it hopes to renegotiate its five-year US$440 million live broadcast rights agreement because it failed to reach a broadcast agreement with traditional broadcasters. Therefore, Belgian league matches can currently only be watched through the DAZN app and cannot be broadcast on TV.

DAZN similarly terminated its Ligue 1 contract this summer due to disappointing subscriber numbers. The move will save around €1.5bn (£1.12bn) over the next four years. Although DAZN paid a termination fee of 100 million euros, the company avoided payments ranging from 375 million euros in the first year to 500 million euros in the final season by exiting the contract.

These initiatives have helped DAZN reduce billions of dollars in losses since its launch in Europe and Asia in 2018. The company's 2024 financial report released this month showed that its losses decreased from US$1.4 billion to US$936 million. CEO Shay Segev said the company will be profitable by 2026 and hopes to become the "Spotify of sports."