New provider offers NFL games in Canada
U.K. company buys rights to live, online streaming; some games still on cable TV
You’ve got to get connected if you want to watch an NFL game of your choosing in Canada over the next five years.
Domestic cable and satellite providers no longer will carry the Sunday Ticket service, nor the NFL RedZone channel.
DAZN has bought those rights in Canada for the next five years — as well as for NFL Game Pass, an on-demand service for various platforms. All will launch in time for NFL pre-season games starting early next month, the company announced Thursday.
DAZN (pronounced “Da Zone,” according to the company) is a live and on-demand sports streaming service, along the lines of Netflix. Based in London, England, DAZN is an arm of Perform, a global sports media group.
DAZN provides sports games and services on web-connected digital devices such as Smart TVs, tablets, smartphones and games consoles.
“Your average fan should think this is like Netflix,” Alex Rice, DAZN’s managing director of strategic partnerships, said Thursday in a phone interview from England. “It will be available on all the major connective devices, including all the major TV manufacturers.
Rice confirmed that the usual cable and satellite access options are a thing of the past for NFL fans north of the U.S. border. “We are not going to distribute these NFL products to other pay platforms in Canada,” he said.
While it is true, as the company’s news release states, that “DAZN will be the only place Canadians can watch every live NFL game this season,” the CTV and TSN family of channels under the Bell Media umbrella will continue to show select NFL games on Sunday afternoons, in doubleheaders, in addition to all marquee Sunday night, all Monday night and (new this year) all Thursday night games throughout the 2017 season. Rogers Media’s Sportsnet channels previously carried Thursday night games.
Canadian subscribers to DAZN will receive access to all NFL games live (via the Sunday Ticket pay package provided previously by cable and satellite companies such as Rogers and Bell), the NFL Game Pass digital service (which includes all games on demand, “all-22” coaches film of all games, plus other NFL Network and NFL Films programming) and the NFL RedZone channel, on which studio hosts jump between games as scoring occurs.
Game Pass alone previously cost at least $300 annually in Canada.
This year DAZN offers two payment options to Canadians: $20 per month with no monthly minimum, or a $150 annual fee. A 30day free trial is offered to all.