dazn.com
Other streaming services, such as Sling TV, offer a more general package that includes a range of sports broadcasting options.
These days, differentiation is key when it comes to streaming services - especially if you're looking to watch live sports broadcasts. For example, some services focus on providing access to just one league (like the NHL), while others offer more generalized packages that include a variety of sports (like Sling TV).
Other services offer a variety of sports and games, but they can feel directionless, cumbersome, and hard to navigate. Some of these services provide the best bang for your buck, as you get the most diverse kind of content, but it can be hard to decide which package is right for you. The most important thing to ask yourself when choosing a sports streaming service is what sport or sports do I care about most and watch the most frequently?
If your answer to that is, say, Football, the niche aspect of the NFL's streaming service will probably be immediately appealing to you. However, if you find that you tend to just be a sports fanatic in general, with no singular sport held in higher regard than another, you will probably want to look at a more generalized service.
Then there are also sports streaming services that exist somewhere in between the most specific and the most general - services that cater to a specific sport, not necessarily a single league or division of it. If your biggest concern is being able to watch fight, be it boxing or Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), perhaps your best bet will be a streaming service that calls itself DZN (apparently meant to be pronounced "Da Zone").
This is one of the best over the top sports streaming sites and apps if you spend a lot of money on Pay Per View broadcasts of the big fights. With a subscription to DZN, you can kiss those individual PPV price tags goodbye forever; and, with its monthly or yearly single cost, DZN (although relatively expensive to other sports streamers) could actually save you some hassle and some money.
History
Perform Group recently announced its acquisition of exclusive global broadcasting rights to the Japanese football league, J. League. The contract ended up costing Perform the Yen equivalent of $2 billion, and would give Perform exclusive rights for up to 10 years. DAZN (a subsidiary of Perform) will begin broadcasting all matches from all 3 divisions of J. League starting in 2017. This deal is often cited as the largest Japanese broadcast rights deal in history.
Thus, DAZN first launched in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland on August 10th of 2016. The Japanese launch, too, followed closely behind, occurring on August 26th of the same year. From there, DAZN continued to grow and expand. In July of 2017, DAZN began broadcasting NFL games in Canada, and in May of 2018, it launched in the United States upon hiring former ESPN president John Skipper as its executive chairman. The mission of DAZN in the US was to compete directly with traditional US cable companies when it came to sports broadcasts.
DAZN has struck a long list of deals with various sports leagues in the US and around the world. They have focused heavily on acquiring rights to boxing and MMA companies, but they have also set their sights on Major League Baseball and further expansion of their NFL Red Zone rights in order to offset their combat sports offerings with more mainstream, family-friendly competitions.
Design
DAZN has a user-friendly layout that is easy to navigate, even on multiple devices. The look and feel of the service is similar to those of movie and TV streaming services that are common today, with commentary-based content and archived matches accessible through a portal or menu bar at the top.
From here, you will find three simple options. Choose from Home, Sports, or Schedule. The latter option comes with a handy dropdown menu, allowing you to select and deselect whatever sports you are or are not interested in from the list. This will refresh the content you are to see based on your preferences. Therefore, once you choose your own customized list of sports, when you click on ?Schedule? the upcoming games and matches that you are shown will reflect that decision.
The apps and the site are both very cleanly designed. The black background gives way to white text, which looks classic and simple. The layout is also very adaptable to your viewing habits, as the home page offers up a few key sections: Don't Miss, Classic Fights, DAZN Presents, and Keep Watching. Overall, DAZN provides all of the design features you want from a streaming service.
Content
Many people who subscribe to DAZN choose it for its MMA content. This is truly the heart of this service, as you can watch any live PPV fight, as well as browse a robust catalog of archived MMA fights at any time.
That being said, DAZN also features some original programming. For instance, in its daily MLB show, Change-Up jumps back and forth between live games, offering commentary and analyses in real-time. MLB fans will also find game highlights that are published every couple of days. Aside from that, most of what you find will be MMA and boxing-related, save for a motley assortment of seemingly randomly broadcast events from more obscure sports around the world like cricket, fishing, darts, gymnastics, and Japanese soccer. That being said not all sports fans outside of the US can enjoy live games from the MLB or NFL as they are unavailable there due to contractual complications.
Desktop and Mobile Experience
DAZN seems to work pretty smoothly, no matter what device you use or what streaming quality you choose (you can stream content in up to 4k). Of course, speed depends almost entirely on your internet connection. But assuming you have strong wifi, you won't have to worry about anything going wrong on DAZN's end. The service is also available across almost all devices. Enjoy games and fights on your smart TV, smartphone, tablet, computer, or game console for an equally user-friendly, effective, dependable, and intuitive experience.
Pricing and Plans
This is where I start to have some issues with DAZN. It is one of the more expensive sports streaming services on the market, and it does not offer a free trial period. That might be a smart business move, as it keeps users from signing up for the trial whenever there's a specific PPV event they want to watch for free. However, it's not cheap- in fact, it's one of the more expensive services on the market. DAZN offers two subscription models, either pay monthly for $19.99 or pay yearly for $99. Unfortunately, there isn't a free trial period available so you have to decide whether you want to commit to paying monthly or yearly right away.
Suggestions that I have for DAZN
I would love to see DAZN expand the breadth of its content in the United States. I understand that these contracts and rights acquisitions can be next to impossible to land with companies like the NFL and the NBA, but it would be nice for American viewers to be able to watch more than just MMA, boxing, and MLB highlights. I would also, obviously, like to see the price point go down. At least for the US version, seeing as it offers such an odd slice of sports content.
Conclusion
If you live outside of the United States, DAZN is a great option to consider. However, if you are an American, you might want to continue looking into other streaming options - unless you are a big fan of MMA or boxing. In that case, DAZN is right up your alley.
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