TORONTO – Live sports streaming service DAZN has arrived in Canada, promising football fans the digital subscription product NFL Game Pass with every live NFL game of the 2017 season, including pre-season, regular season, the playoffs, and the Super Bowl, all in HD.
DAZN (pronounced ‘Da Zone’) is priced at $20 per month, or annually for a “limited introductory price” of $150, and all subscribers will receive their first 30 days free. The platform is available on connected devices such as smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, and game consoles, and viewers have the ability to pause live games or catch up on a missed match-up.
DAZN said Thursday that its content will include both live and on-demand NFL coverage with no blackouts, the NFL Network-produced NFL RedZone program hosted by Scott Hanson, and content from NFL Films. It also promised access to other (yet unnamed) “popular sports from top leagues and competitions around the world”.
"We know that Canada is home to many NFL fans and we're excited to transform the way they experience the NFL and other live sports", said CEO James Rushton, in the news release. "After successfully launching in four countries around the world, we are thrilled to bring DAZN to Canada where fans are so passionate and sport is a way of life. DAZN is designed to put fans first, so we're confident fans will enjoy our product and proposition."
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, DAZN is owned by global sports media company Perform Group. The service is also available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan. A Bloomberg News report says that DAZN has committed more than $2 billion to sports rights, including English Premier League soccer for its German offering, and NFL Game Pass in 100 countries outside of the U.S., including Canada and Japan.
NFL games will continue air on linear TV (Bell Media owns the Canadian broadcast rights for the NFL games which will air on CTV, CTV Two, TSN and RDS this season). When contacted by Cartt.ca, a Rogers spokesperson said that out-of-market games package NFL Sunday Ticket will continue to be available to Rogers’ commercial customers.
“We know our customers want to experience sports on a big screen in HD or 4K from the comfort of their living rooms, and we’ll continue to offer all the best weekly NFL matchups through customers’ regular cable subscriptions”, reads the emailed statement. “It will be disappointing for our customers that the new NFL rights holder has decided not to make Redzone or NFL Sunday Ticket available on TV to Canadian sports fans at home.”
– With files from Greg O'Brien
