Cable, satellite back in the game
Streaming service DAZN loses exclusive rights in Canada after dropping the ball
ORLANDO, Fla. — Breathe easy, hardcore Canadian NFL fans. DAZN won’t be your only option for watching all league games live in 2018.
Postmedia learned Wednesday that cable and satellite services coast-to-coast in Canada again will be able to carry the all-games NFL Sunday Ticket package, as was the case before 2017.
“I can tell you that Sunday Ticket will definitely be available on cable and satellite (services) in Canada in 2018,” Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive VP of international, said in an interview at the conclusion of the league’s annual meeting here at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
DAZN (pronounced “da zone”) is a live and on-demand sports streaming service along the lines of Netflix. Based in England, DAZN announced proudly last July it had purchased exclusive rights through 2021 to provide Canadians with live video feeds of all NFL games during the pre-season and regular season — to web-connected digital devices such as Smart TVs, tablets, smartphones and game consoles.
In other words, cable and satellite providers would no longer be able to carry the NFL all-games package until at least 2022.
But scores of Canadian purchasers of DAZN’s product immediately encountered grating problems with the service. For instance, some games weren’t available from the start. Some devices couldn’t connect to the service at all. And action on DAZN feeds often was delayed more than a minute, ruining the experience for many who like to watch games in concert with social media.
Constant rebuffering might have been the DAZN feed’s most prevalent, recurring problem.
The company had promised last summer it was ready for any technological hurdles that might arise in bringing the streaming service to Canada. That proved grossly inaccurate.
Week 1 of the regular season was such a DAZN disaster that the NFL’s VP of international media and business development, Michael Markovich, had to issue this statement the following Monday:
“We are aware of the issues that our fans may have faced this past week/weekend and apologize for the inadequate service. We are absolutely committed to working with DAZN to provide our fans with the NFL experience that they deserve.
“We are urgently assessing the information and data from the weekend, as well as closely monitoring tonight’s MNF doubleheader. With a full weekend of games behind us, we will then define the right next steps to best serve our Canadian fans.”
But the worst of DAZN’s problems continued — for weeks thereafter. Finally, by mid October, the NFL and DAZN announced that domestic cable and satellite providers could again air the Sunday Ticket package, at a discounted remainder-of-season rate; DAZN had lost its Canadian exclusivity.
Rogers Communications was one such provider that bit.
Canadians livid with DAZN’s service lit up social media during and after games. One person tweeted that DAZN was Europe’s worst export to Canada since smallpox.
Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, a member of the league’s digital media committee and chair of the international committee, told Postmedia this week he learned from a broadcast committee’s report about the problems Canadians had with the DAZN service.
“When we all heard that, we were disappointed,” Hunt said, “because having the games available in more markets obviously is better for the league. And Canada’s one of our best international markets.”