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Sports service DAZN expands to 200 countries on December 1st

The expansion is back on track after the coronavirus pandemic had delayed it.

Since launching in 2016, sports streaming service DAZN has made its way to the US, Brazil, Canada, Japan and a handful of European countries. On December 1st, the company plans to complete its largest expansion to date by opening up access to its platform in more than 200 countries across the globe. In most of the new markets where sports fans will have the chance to subscribe to DAZN, the company says the service will initially cost £2 (approximately $2.58) per month or less.

While DAZN has dabbled in various sports, including Major League Baseball, boxing has been the company’s main calling card in recent years. To that end, two boxing events will be the highlight of the rollout: a December 5th match between Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell, and a December 12th duel between Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev.

DAZN had planned to start expanding to additional markets in March, but as you might have guessed, the coronavirus pandemic threw those plans in disarray. The company is also tied up in ongoing arbitration with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions over a $365 million deal it signed with boxer Canelo Alvarez.

“I’m not going to pretend this was the road map. I do think that COVID gave us a chance to evaluate our plans,” DAZN Executive Chairman John Skipper told Deadline. “We really weren’t producing anything, we weren’t marketing anything. We weren’t buying new rights. So we did have a genuine chance to stop and kind of go, ‘What’s working and not working?’”

When the expansion gets underway in December, most content will be available in English and Spanish, with additional localization to come at a later date. The app itself will be available on most internet-connected devices, including phones, game consoles and streaming sticks.