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I thought Everybody knew they're paying the media, including YouTube channels and some of the larger Twitter accounts. I'm surprised most people didn't know this
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Of course they are... following the whole UFC road map when they got in bed with USAToday/MMAjunkie... Zuffa set up the UFC media group in conjunction with USAT, to put up video player on affiliate MMA websites to funnel traffic back to UFC... https://t.co/WGcr4SIZr1
— Robert Joyner (@robnashville) November 19, 2019
When DAZN burst onto the American scene in 2018, checkbook in hand, their ambition was palpable. In an effort to penetrate and dominate the combat sports scene in America, the wannabe Netflix of combat sports signed a modest roster of fighters with which to launch. Then they really opened up the vault in signing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin to multi-fight deals at a total expense of nearly half a billion dollars.
But did their fighter-signing checkbook diplomacy also apply to the boxing media?
Almost from the very beginning, buzz floated throughout media back channels that DAZN was most definitely in the business of buying “friendly” media relations. There were stories of media members being flown out to certain events on the DAZN dime and given the VIP treatment—something which other companies have also done. But there were also allegations that the currying of favor went well beyond what is considered ethical, even in the shady world of boxing.
The advertising agency representing the streaming service approached boxing sites of varying sizes about affiliate arrangements which allowed the strategic placement of links to the DAZN subscription page for a monetary reward to site owners. There were also direct offers to provide “paid stories/posts,” confirmed by FightHype's own editor Ben Thompson, who declined them.
When contacted for comment, a DAZN spokesperson, who wasn’t exactly easy to peg down for a comment, only replied by saying that his company “has a variety of market-standard affiliate agreements.”
But did their fighter-signing checkbook diplomacy also apply to the boxing media?
Almost from the very beginning, buzz floated throughout media back channels that DAZN was most definitely in the business of buying “friendly” media relations. There were stories of media members being flown out to certain events on the DAZN dime and given the VIP treatment—something which other companies have also done. But there were also allegations that the currying of favor went well beyond what is considered ethical, even in the shady world of boxing.
The advertising agency representing the streaming service approached boxing sites of varying sizes about affiliate arrangements which allowed the strategic placement of links to the DAZN subscription page for a monetary reward to site owners. There were also direct offers to provide “paid stories/posts,” confirmed by FightHype's own editor Ben Thompson, who declined them.
When contacted for comment, a DAZN spokesperson, who wasn’t exactly easy to peg down for a comment, only replied by saying that his company “has a variety of market-standard affiliate agreements.”
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