DAZN has entered the bidding to become the EFL’s broadcast partner from 2024-25 in a radical proposal that would end the Saturday 3pm blackout for UK viewers.
The international streaming platform wants to secure the rights to show all matches across the Championship, League One, League Two, including those that have traditionally been unavailable to a domestic audience on a Saturday afternoon.
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That would require the EFL to scrap their current broadcast model that allows only 138 games a season to be shown live and, in turn, lobby the FA to ditch a blackout that prohibits live games being broadcast between 2.45pm and 5.15pm under a UEFA statute.
DAZN have made their intentions clear to the EFL and believe they have the capabilities to show every league game across the three divisions through their over-the-top (OTT) platforms.
Strong competition will come from Sky Sports, the EFL’s long-standing broadcast partner in the UK, as well as Scandinavian firm Viaplay and BT Sport, who will rebrand as TNT Sport from this summer. The EFL hopes to agree a deal worth £200million per season, a marked rise from the current arrangement worth £119m. The bidding is expected to reach a conclusion this summer.
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DAZN’s entrance into the market has the potential to transform the broadcast landscape in the UK. Although EFL clubs have been able to sell streaming passes for games played in midweek or on Bank Holidays this season, teaming up with DAZN would enable supporters to legally watch every game from 2024-25.
The EFL’s 72 clubs would have to decide if any loss in matchday revenue was compensated through an improved TV deal but the average Championship club could see annual broadcast revenues from the EFL rise from about £4m to around £6.5m if the existing distribution model was retained. A hybrid model, combining a traditional broadcaster with a streaming provider, is not being discounted after an Invitation to Tender reached its deadline last week.
DAZN’s aggressive move would also have implications for the Premier League, whose chief executive Richard Masters said earlier this month that he remained in favour of a 3pm blackout. The Premier League are due to seek proposals for a new domestic TV deal next season ahead of the 2025-26 season and, at present, currently only show 200 of its 380 games live to a domestic audience.
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DAZN is currently best known in the UK for its boxing output after agreeing a partnership with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom group in 2021 and is available through streaming and mobile devices at a monthly rate. A first big move into football came when winning the rights to broadcast Serie A games in Italy from the start of the 2021-22 season but that partnership has encountered problems, with the service providing outages to frustrate fans.
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(Photo: Elianto/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)