DAZN deal for EFL rights would be start of a brave new world
THE explosive growth of live football available on television to armchair viewers could be about to go nuclear. It emerged this week that streaming platform DAZN, who are better known in the UK for their boxing coverage, are looking to muscle in on English football.
They have just put an interesting bid on the table for EFL rights.
From 2024/25 onwards, when the current deal with Sky comes to an end, DAZN want to show every single Championship, League One and League Two match live.
Every. Last. One.that would mean a staggering 1,656 EFL matches per season available through your nearest screen.
How much is too much football? There is no such thing, apparently.
Under DAZN’S proposal, yesterday’s coverage would have extended to a mammoth 31 games. You would need a front room that looked like NASA mission control and eyes like a chameleon to keep across that smorgasbord of lowerleague delights.
Line all the games up in a row and there wouldn’t be sufficient hours in the day to watch them all – but DAZN’S take is that someone, somewhere will.
The deal would be for both domestic and global rights.
Quite what the demand is for Barrow v Gillingham invietnam is uncertain, but they are up for finding out. It would be a niche market, certainly – there aren’t many Gills’ shirts spotted in Ho Chi Minh City – but ifwrexham can crack America then who knows what is possible.
In a football era where the gravitational pull of the biggest clubs and the star names grows ever stronger, it may be that DAZN are barking up the wrong tree.
It is, by definition, a second, third and fourth tier product in comparison to the glamour of the Premier League.
But DAZN (pronounced Da Zone), who are already big noises in football on the continent and in Japan, are not some fringe fly-bynight operation.they reached more than 100million homes globally last year and they know the market.
They clearly think there is something in this stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap-ish at £99.99 for an annual subscription.
With so many games, it could
mean some unexpected commentary recalls for some familiar voices of yesteryear. Barry Davies or Archie Macpherson perhaps.there would also be a stampede for past-their-sell-by pundits.anyone still got Mark Lawrenson’s number? Or Ron Atkinson’s? Maybe not…
Here’s the rub, though. For the format to work in the UK, it would need English football to do away with the Saturday 3pm domestic broadcast blackout that has been in place since the 1960s.
It would spell the end of one of English football’s greatest anachronisms.
Bob Lord, the legendary Burnley chairman who persuaded the clubs to introduce the ban, would turn in his grave at the thought.
He railroaded it through to protect attendances in the lower leagues and that is still the argument in favour of retaining it.
A handful of Premier League
games were slated for Saturday 3pm kick-offs and broadcast during the covid lockdown in 2020 to provide entertainment for an imprisoned nation but, of course, there were no crowds to hit at that time. Now that they are back, there is more to lose.
BUT the idea of grounds suddenly emptying if the broadcasting restrictions are lifted is a myth. Supporters would still go to support their teams. EFL games were streamed at 3pm on Saturdays during the Qatar World Cup yet attendances grew. The more football there is on TV, the more footfall fans there seem to be.
The other leading European leagues in Germany, Spain, France and Italy do not operate a blackout system and people still go to games there.
Nothing beats live sport.the *
Covid echo chambers were a stark reminder of that.
There may be some fall-off in terms of travelling fans but the doubling in broadcast money from an offer like DAZN’S would more than compensate for it.
Besides, why shouldn’t viewers here have the chance to see more football if they want to? It is perverse that those in the US and Asia are able to watch more English football than we can on these shores at present.
The fact is that if the blackout was ever fit for purpose, it isn’t any more.
DAZN’S audacious bid may not win out.there is competition in the marketplace and English football may not be ready to offer up its wares in their entirety.
But whoever secures the rights to show English football in this country, the blackout should go.
The end of the dark ages is long overdue.