It’s gonna get more expensive to watch boxing on DAZN. Sometimes.
Here’s a video from 2019 that didn’t age well:
Canelo Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) was DAZN’s big signing back in 2018 when he inked a massive $365 million deal with the streaming service. Then he eventually got out of that contract through his Golden Boy Boxing lawsuit and even though he’s back on DAZN for at least the next couple of fights, it’ll now cost extra to watch the undisputed super-middleweight champion compete.
Alvarez has signed a lucrative offer to face WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) on May 7th, and should Gennadiy Golovkin defeat Ryota Murata in Japan this spring (hardly a given at this point), we would see Canelo vs. GGG III as his September bout.
We’ve actually gone over this before but now that it’s official, here’s the main story that’s more important than the actual fight. Enter DAZN pay-per-view! (Only in the USA and Canada)
Here’s what DAZN has in store for American and Canadian subscribers now that pay-per-view has risen from the dead.
In the U.S. & Canada, the event will be offered exclusively on DAZN Pay-Per View (PPV) – newly introduced for very select events to come – and priced at $59.99 for current subscribers and $79.99 for new subscribers (inclusive of a one-month subscription to DAZN).
It’s already $20/month if you’re a DAZN subscriber on either side of the border, hence the discount of sorts compared to non-subscribers. An annual subscription will run you $100 in the United States or $150 in Canada. If you’re Canadian, then Ryan Garcia vs. Emmanuel Tagoe on April 9th is a pay-per-view in your neck of the woods.
Here’s what DAZN’s social media team said after the scores of replies about the “no pay-per-view here!” rug being pulled out from underneath subscribers.
The original sentiment around PPV as a default being a broken model in boxing is something we stand by.
For the very occasional events such as this that necessitate PPV, we now have the flexibility to explore fighters, mega fights & innovative partnerships previously impossible.
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) February 26, 2022
I guess it was wishful thinking for all of us, but the common man wasn’t creating commercials putting pay-per-view in the coffin. There are still plenty of high-level boxing matches that aren’t on pay-per-view, but now the days of watching Canelo with just a standard DAZN subscription are over. Alvarez’s last fight was on Showtime, and his win over Caleb Plant did at least 800,000 buys. I guess if DAZN wanted him back, they had to get in on the sport’s biggest revenue generator.
Pay-per-view may not be consumer friendly but at least in North America it’s here to stay and we’re only getting more of them, not less.