Moving away from ‘appointment viewing’ the goal for DAZN

DAZN plans for long-term success revolve around moving away from being an appointment-viewing sports app and to being a service that people turn to more regularly.

Speaking at the Connected TV World Summit, Pete Parmenter, SVP business development at DAZN said that “what we are now working towards is to give you a reason to open the app on your phone multiple times a day. We’re not just giving you the live content, we’re giving you editorial and data.”

DAZN’s app has ambitions to function more like comparable apps from the BBC Sports and Sky Sports, with users regularly turning to it for news, live scores and other editorial content. 

Parmenter said that his goal is to change consumers’ approach towards DAZN to “multiple views per day rather than appointment viewing,” and a compelling “second screen experience that’s complementary to the live game.”

“Where the OTT world needs to innovate is on top of what we can do in that app experience

I don’t think we have seen that yet come to fruition with that,” he said. “We need to innovate on top to convince you to use your app more often.”

The exec said that churn is less of an issue for DAZN than many of its non-sports-oriented streaming rivals because “the one thing we have is that the season starts every year – if you have churned you resubscribe, because it’s the way you watch your Bundesliga or Champions League.”

Parmenter also spoke about DAZN’s failed attempt to merge with or acquire BT Sport, referring to it as the company’s “Plan A” for making a major entry into the UK. After failing to reach an agreement with DAZN, BT would go on announce the creation of a joint-venture with Warner Bros. Discovery to in the long-term merge BT Sport and Eurosport. 

DAZN does operate in the UK, but it only offers its global service, which includes rights it holds across the world as opposed to any specific local market rights.“

“We’re going to have to go to plan B,” Parmenter conceded. “We don’t want to be a player without a big business in the UK but how we get there is still up for debate. I think we will have a business here, but it won’t be the plan A that we had hoped for.”