Sky and TNT fear that Club World Cup is just the start for DAZN

Established major players in sports broadcasting may not be able to compete with DAZN

19 June 2025, GRNDSTND, by Matt Hooper: DAZN's revenue is expected to surpass $6billion in 2025, and whilst this is still some way short of Sky's £10billion and nowhere near the $39billion of Warner Bros Discovery, DAZN has a long-term vision and it has a distinct advantage over both. DAZN is available on every single device including TV, Laptop, Tablet, Mobile, and Games Console in more than 200 countries worldwide, whilst Warner Bros Discovery's streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+ are available in anywhere between 65 and 150 countries, and Sky is only available in just 6 countries worldwide. DAZN is set to achieve its $6billion annual revenues in a much shorter time than its competitors, launching in 2015 and only being available widely around the world since 2020, whereas Sky has been available since 1991 (Sky Sports) and TNT since 2013 (BT Sport).

DAZN has already established itself as the Global Home of Boxing, effectively forcing Sky and TNT out of the marketplace by acquiring long term rights to Matchroom Boxing, Queensberry and Golden Boy, among many others. Golden Boy Promotions became the first major promotional company to sign with DAZN, in 2018, signing a 5-year deal, which was a ground-breaking deal for Golden Boy, their boxers and the sport. Matchroom Boxing and Sky Sports was one of the most successful sports broadcasting partnerships ever seen, running from 1994 to 2021, before Eddie Hearn took the decision to sign an exclusive worldwide deal with DAZN in June 2021. This deal included the rights to Anthony Joshua's fights and around 20 shows per year, exclusively on a worldwide basis.

Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions enjoyed a hugely successful long-term deal with BT Sport and then TNT Sports from 2013 to 2025, and Warren had been a long-term, vocal critic of DAZN, but in November 2024 Warren confirmed a long-term deal with DAZN. This deal ended TNT Sports coverage of Boxing for the foreseeable future, and established DAZN as the undisputed home of boxing around the world. The last 5 years have seen DAZN usurp both Sky and TNT as the destination for live Boxing coverage in the UK, and they have also established themselves as the worldwide partner of choice for several sports which have been a staple for Sky and TNT.

In 2022 DAZN signed a 10-year deal with the NFL to distribute NFL Game Pass International, streaming every single game from the NFL, including the Super Bowl, worldwide outside the US, Canada and China. Games which are shown on Sky during the regular season are not included in the deal, but along with being the home of the NFL Network, DAZN quickly established itself as the global home of the NFL. Subscriptions to NFL Game Pass on DAZN rose by 23% in 2024, and usage of the free portion of it rose by 41%. DAZN has since added coverage of the United Football League (UFL) and the European League of Football (ELF), further expanding its provision of American Football around the world.

Until this summer DAZN's coverage of Football, globally and in the UK, has consisted of the UEFA Women's Champions League, Saudi pro league, the National League (through National League TV), and a handful of women's leagues from Europe and North America. In December 2024 DAZN signed a landmark deal with FIFA to be the global broadcaster of the FIFA Club World Cup, broadcasting all 63 games free-to-air. DAZN has since agreed a number of sub-licensing deals with other broadcasters around the world, and this week announced a partnership with FIFA to become the global home of Football through FIFA+, broadcasting action from up to 150 different leagues worldwide, and the complete FIFA archive, as well as original programming.

DAZN has been long rumoured as a suitor for Premier League rights, but the cost, it can be assumed, has been prohibitive. However, DAZN's proven track record of partnering with rights holders around the world on worldwide deals must surely be attractive to the Premier League. The DAZN platform is home to several additional subscription platforms including National League TV (Football), Courtside 1891 (Basketball), NFL Game Pass (NFL), Rally TV (WRC), ELF Game Pass (American Football), and no doubt there will be more in the future.

Simon Jordan (former Crystal Palace Chairman) has been an advocate for a global streaming platform for the Premier League, and on a recent show on Talk Sport he said: "The Premier League could and should do its own broadcaster, I have been banging that drum for five years now, about being the Netflix of Football, owning its own distribution model and turning it into billions, thank you very much Sky.... we now have our own platform which can do far more significant things than the likes of Sky can offer".

Jordan's suggestion is that the Premier League's own platform could charge £9.99 per month and would see 100 million plus subscribe to it, which could generate the league more than £11 billion per year, which would revolutionise the finances of English football, and make the league more accessible than it has been since the very early days of Sky Sports. Only DAZN is in position to partner with the Premier League to distribute their own platform to scale of more than 200 countries worldwide, and can offer e-commerce and betting to support it and enhance it. DAZN has managed to create engagement with its users and subscribers in the way that only YouTube has done previously. Its FANZONE feature has been immensely popular and well utilised during its coverage of Boxing, and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Sky simply cannot provide the platform globally for the Premier League, and they have not shown any willing to work with free to air broadcasters in the UK to enhance the reach of the Premier League. For this Club World Cup, DAZN has done a sublicensing deal with Channel 5 to simulcast coverage of 23 games, and there is no doubt that DAZN and the Premier League could do something similar for a future Premier League rights deal and distribution of its own platform.

In the UK all 380 games could be shown live each season, with 2 games per round (Possibly Sunday and Monday) shown exclusively on DAZN, and 1 per round simulcast on DAZN and Channel 5 (possibly Saturday lunchtime), and all other games could be on the Premier League platform on DAZN globally. DAZN and the Premier League could then work on sublicensing deals for 38 games per season in other countries and territories, and again this is something Sky cannot and never will be able to achieve.

So, in conclusion the establishment media are afraid of what the FIFA Club World Cup deal with DAZN could lead to, so rather than acting like the tournament does not exist, they are using every opportunity to discredit it and to delegitimise it. TNT are in deference to their rights holder, UEFA, who have a long-standing battle with FIFA, and as the UK's primary broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League, have shown almost no attention to the FIFA Club World Cup at all.

DAZN could also be a future player when it comes to rights for the Olympic Games in certain territories, regions and even globally. The International Olympic Committee cannot fail to be impressed by the platform, and the temptation of having the Olympic Channel embedded into the platform. WBD has secured the pan-European rights through until 2032, but with that being seven years away it gives DAZN a chance to prove itself more with new partnerships of global scale, and it surely has to be something which WBD must monitor and react to if it is to remain the home of the Olympics in Europe.