DAZN

Canadian launch

In July 2017, DAZN announced that it would expand into Canada, after having acquired OTT streaming rights to the National Football League in Canada, including NFL Game Pass and access to NFL RedZone; as a result of the deal, television providers would no longer sell the out-of-market sports package NFL Sunday Ticket in Canada (for residential customers only commercial establishments where still on television providers). The DAZN deal does not affect the NFL's newly-extended linear television rights deal with Bell Media.^[8][9][10] On 8 August 2017, DAZN reached a deal to sublicense content from beIN Sports Canada, including selected UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches (themselves sub-licensed from TSN), as well as other international sports rights.^[11]

The Canadian launch was met with technical issues; DAZN apologized for the "inadequate service" that it delivered, and stated that it was working to rectify them. However, users still reported problems, including inconsistent stream qualities, buffering, and latency between the streams and television broadcasts.^[12][13] As a result, DAZN began to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to television providers in October 2017, as had been the case before.^[13] On 20 November 2017, DAZN acquired Canadian rights to FIBA events.^[14]

In February 2018, DAZN acquired Canadian broadcast rights to the 2018 Commonwealth Games (later sub-licensing portions of the coverage to CBC Sports),^[15] and subsumed Major League Soccer's digital out-of-market service MLS Live—with live and on-demand streaming of matches featuring U.S. teams (matches with Canadian teams will only be available after a 48-hour delay to protect the league's main rightsholders TSN and TVA Sports).^[16][17] Roku support was also added that month.^[18]

On 25 May 2018, DAZN announced that it had acquired exclusive Canadian rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, beginning in the 2018–19 season and replacing TSN.^[19][20]

U.S. launch

On 10 May 2018, DAZN, whose parent company is now led by former ESPN president John Skipper, announced a major broadcasting deal with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing. Under the deal, DAZN will stream 32 cards per-year on a forthcoming American version of the service, including 16 British Sky Sports PPV cards, as well as 16 (including four described as Hearn as being "absolute monsters") that will be held in the United States under the new Matchroom Boxing USA banner. Hearn claimed that the deal, which will last for at least two years, with an option for a six-year extension (totalling US$1 billion over the life of the contract if realized), was a "groundbreaking deal in the history of [boxing]".^[21][22] On 26 June 2018, DAZN announced a five-year streaming rights deal with the Viacom-owned mixed martial arts promotion Bellator, which began with Bellator 206 on 29 September 2018, and includes the U.S. and all other regions currently served by DAZN. The package will include cards broadcast on linear television by Paramount Network, as well as 7 exclusive cards per-year.^[23][24]

DAZN officially launched in September 2018, ahead of its first boxing event—Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin, on 22 September. Its launch content also includes the World Boxing Super Series, as well as the AFC Champions League, the Chilean Primera Division, J-League, and other content.^[25][26] DAZN's broadcast team for its U.S. boxing events will be led by "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Brian Kenny on play-by-play, with LZ Granderson as ringside reporter.^[27]