National Post

DAZN BRINGS NFL TO CANADIANS WITHOUT CABLE.

DAZN has exclusive deal with NFL

- Emily Jackson

National Football League fans in Canada officially have a new way to watch the game without paying for a cable package, trekking to a bar with a television or il- legally streaming live feeds.

London- based DAZN, an online sports streaming service vying to be the Netflix of sports, announced Thursday it will launch in Canada with exclusive rights to NFL Game Pass and NFL RedZone, which includes live streams of every live football game in the pre-, regular and post- season in 2017. It will not be subject to blackouts, meaning the games will still be available when they’re on live TV.

The subscripti­on service, which is available on smart TVs, tablets, smartphone­s and game consoles, will cost $ 20 per month or $ 150 annually. The first 30 days are free.

DAZN enters Canada as television providers rely more on live sports coverage to keep customers tied into their cable and IPTV packages amid competitio­n from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Cord- cutting isn’t huge — only about 200,000 customers cancelled their TV subscripti­ons last year out of approximat­ely 11 million subscriber­s — but providers are trying to quell the decline in revenue.

DAZN becomes one of few legal sports-streaming services catering to cord- cutters in the Canadian market. As it stands, customers can buy online streaming packages directly from major leagues, but many are subject to blackouts.

Rogers Communicat­ions Inc. offers Sportsnet NOW, a $ 24.99- per- month standalone streaming service that has exclusive Toronto Blue Jays coverage, NHL games and Toronto Raptors games (it’s included for existing TV subscriber­s). Other providers such as BCE Inc. offer apps for TSN subscriber­s to watch games online, but the service isn’t sold as a stand-alone.

DAZN, which already operates in Germany, Austria, Switzerlan­d and Japan, is part of global sports media firm Perform Group and is backed by billionair­e Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries Holdings LLC.

“We know that Canada is home to many NFL fans and we’re excited to transform the way they experience the NFL and other live sports,” DAZN CEO James Rushton said in a statement.

DAZN told Bloomberg it has “big ambitions for global expansion.” It has purchased rights to Champions League and English Premier League soccer. Its service, however, isn’t always smooth. Time lags and pauses marred its launch in Japan.

 ?? ELISE AMENDOLA / AP FILES ?? Streaming service DAZN hopes to capitalize on Canadian fans of the NFL purchasing subscripti­ons.
ELISE AMENDOLA / AP FILES Streaming service DAZN hopes to capitalize on Canadian fans of the NFL purchasing subscripti­ons.

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