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Skipper’s job is not to make the boxing division work.
His job is to land major American pro sports league content. Without it, Dazn cannot survive in the long run in the USA.
They wanted to launch so they put money into boxing because that’s the only sport they could ‘own’ — or thought they could — to build a base subscriber base. They’re intentionally throwing good money after bad to get people in the US exposed to their service and carve a niche in the market. Having Canelo fights and, they hoped, major heavyweight bouts would give them some viability and get the public to know they existed.
I expect they wanted bigger returns than they’ve had but they’ve at least got a start.
If and when they get NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL content — or even snag some major college conference action — when various contracts run out, that’s when we’ll see if their gamble pays off and they can become a major player.
And if they do, you can count on the boxing content to take a back burner and Dazn to shift funds away from it ... pay off or play out remaining contracts, show some Euro stuff they’re paying for already for other markets and whatnot, but it will be a small and unimportant slice of their pie.
Skipper was an ESPN guy and he’s done deals with the major sport en****** in the USA. He gets Dazn to the bargaining table for the content it really wants.
This service was not created because they thought they could sink a billion $$$ into boxing and make a few billion back. It was started to compete with ESPN and the major networks for major sports.
His job is to land major American pro sports league content. Without it, Dazn cannot survive in the long run in the USA.
They wanted to launch so they put money into boxing because that’s the only sport they could ‘own’ — or thought they could — to build a base subscriber base. They’re intentionally throwing good money after bad to get people in the US exposed to their service and carve a niche in the market. Having Canelo fights and, they hoped, major heavyweight bouts would give them some viability and get the public to know they existed.
I expect they wanted bigger returns than they’ve had but they’ve at least got a start.
If and when they get NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL content — or even snag some major college conference action — when various contracts run out, that’s when we’ll see if their gamble pays off and they can become a major player.
And if they do, you can count on the boxing content to take a back burner and Dazn to shift funds away from it ... pay off or play out remaining contracts, show some Euro stuff they’re paying for already for other markets and whatnot, but it will be a small and unimportant slice of their pie.
Skipper was an ESPN guy and he’s done deals with the major sport en****** in the USA. He gets Dazn to the bargaining table for the content it really wants.
This service was not created because they thought they could sink a billion $$$ into boxing and make a few billion back. It was started to compete with ESPN and the major networks for major sports.
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