DAZN price increase: Internet sports channels will soon cost twice as much

Watching football is getting expensive
Internet sports broadcaster DAZN is drastically increasing prices for new customers

The expansion course of the Internet provider DAZN is costing sports fans dearly. The streaming provider increases the prices again – this time, however, much more drastically than at the beginning of the season. The cost of a monthly subscription will practically double for new customers from February 1 to EUR 29.99 instead of EUR 14.99, the cheapest contract for one year will cost EUR 274.99 instead of EUR 149.99.

According to DAZN on Tuesday, this price increase applies to new subscribers and those “who reactivate their terminated membership”. Existing subscribers will initially pay the current price until July 31st. How much they have to pay afterwards has not yet been clarified, it said.

DAZN justifies the price increase with “quality and value”

DAZN had recently invested heavily in rights and outperformed competitors when bidding for the media offers of the German Football League and UEFA. The streaming provider has been allowed to show Bundesliga games live on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons since the beginning of the season. In addition, almost all Champions League games are on offer – while Sky was left empty-handed and currently has no premier class games on offer.

To justify the enormous price increase, DAZN wrote: “This means that the sports platform does justice to the quality and value of its range, which has been greatly expanded since the beginning of the season, and positions itself in the market structure with a reasonable price.” The Internet provider did not give any further details such as the number of subscribers. However, it seems unlikely that the current customer base and the previous prices will be sufficient to offset the rights costs of several 100 million euros a year.

“Another price increase was to be expected given the value of the Bundesliga and Champions League rights and the costs of the rights,” said Christian Frodl of the German Press Agency. However, the expert in the sports rights market at the law firm Klinkert Rechtsanwälte added: “However, this jump in price was surprisingly high.”

DAZN is still cheaper than Sky

DAZN has been active in Germany since August 2016 and initially caused a stir when it snatched the rights for the Premier League from established competitor Sky. Initially, the monthly subscription costs 9.99 euros. Most recently, the Internet sports broadcaster had increased the price from EUR 11.99 to EUR 14.99 for the new season. The pay provider’s package, which recently also acquired large first division packages for the Italian and Spanish markets, claims to include 8,000 live sports events per year in Germany.

“It is a repositioning of the product in the premium segment,” said Frodl, a rights expert who used to work for DFL and Sky, about DAZN’s price increase: “The core target group is now long-term existing customers. The younger customers originally addressed by DAZN with a desire for a flexible Subscription and high price sensitivity are likely to struggle with the new price structure. In this respect, it is exciting to see how this step affects the market perception of DAZN.”

Compared to Sky, DAZN is still cheaper even after the price increase. The established competitor collects 32 euros per month for the Saturday games in the 1st division alone and all games in the 2nd division after a starting price (20.75 euros). If you want to watch the DFB Cup, Premier League and Formula 1, you need the sports package for 25 euros (new customers 17.25 euros).

The third provider in Germany with a large sports package is Telekom. The annual subscription to Magenta Sport, which includes ice hockey, basketball and the 3rd soccer league, costs EUR 9.95 per month for an annual subscription.

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DPA