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Dazn, the price increase for Serie A and sports: what changes for fans

Dazn announces price increase for Serie A and other sports offers, with new packages and features

17 May 2024

4' min read

Key points

The Start Plan
The Standard Plan
The Plus Plan
The push for direct subscriptions
The quest for economic balance

4' min read

Football and TV Serie A fans will have to cope with a new price increase for next season. An upward adjustment that Dazn, owner of the audiovisual rights of Serie A for the next five seasons (with Sky sharing three matches per week in co-exclusivity), has started to communicate to its customers. It is true that there is a new offer, improved and expanded. But with a consequent price revision.

The package of offers from the specialised sports streaming platform is varied. Not all offers will be increased, but an increase will be there, as could be expected in light of the investment made by Dazn to take over the Serie A rights for the five-year period 2024-2029. Basically, the Lega Serie A will receive 900 million per season: 700 from Dazn and 200 from Sky starting next season. A revenue sharing mechanism is then foreseen. In practice a variable component calculated as a percentage equal to 50% of the net revenues from subscriptions from residential users that will be realised by Dazn above a certain threshold.

There are three different types of subscription for users, with different costs and features depending on the alternative chosen: the Standard plan, the Plus plan and the Start plan.

The Plan Start

The latter is the multisport package that includes Italian and European basketball, volleyball with the offer that has recently been enriched with the best women's and men's international cups (Nations League, Club World Cup, Beach Soccer and much more), women's football with the Uefa Women's Champions League and the Eurosport HD1 and HD2 channels with which to follow competitions such as the Giro d'Italia, Roland Garros and the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Start package runs in a range from EUR 8.25 per month if you opt for the Annual Pass (EUR 99 per year with payment in advance) or EUR 11.99 per month for the 12-month instalment plan. Here there are no changes compared to January.

The Standard Plan

The Standard plan is the one that allows you to watch the Serie A, Europa League and other sports offerings on two devices using the same internet line. You can opt for the Annual plan by paying in advance (EUR 0.99 per day for a total of EUR 359 per year) or EUR 34.99 per month if you opt for the 12-month instalment plan (EUR 1.16 per day) as per the January price list, which had been increased.

The Plus Plan

The Plus plan is the 'family package' and is available on two Internet networks, starting from 49 euros per month (a total of 599 euros) if one opts for an annual subscription with payment in advance, or 59.99 euros if one opts for the 12-month instalment plan. In this case there was an increase compared to January, from EUR 539 to EUR 599 per year. And the annual plan with payment in instalments, which went up to EUR 49.99 per month in January from EUR 45.99 in 2023, rises to EUR 59.99 per month.

The push for direct subscriptions

A different pricing policy, however, Dazn has decided to do this by reviewing the management policies of users who decide to subscribe through Apple and Google. This with the aim of pushing users towards direct subscriptions on the platform, circumventing the issue of high management costs for this type of segment that represents a B2B2C channel.

The quest for economic equilibrium

There remains for Dazn the issue of finding economic balance. Considering Serie A alone, it has to take into account the 700 million euro annual outlay for Serie A rights - and with the 50 million annual contribution from Tim with whom it has renewed the agreement for the next five years to provide the app on Timvision in addition to the eighty million in advertising - against the 840 million in the previous three years, but in tandem with Tim.

All this while on a global level, the 2022 financial year (last available) was a balance sheet closed by the entity headed by tycoon Len Blavatnik with a loss of more than a billion (EUR 1.14 billion). The red, however, is 46% lower than the approximately EUR 2.13 billion lost in 2021. And in the meantime, there is a turnover that has grown by 41% to USD 2.2 billion (around EUR 2 billion) in 2022, which has seen an upward adjustment evidently also due to rising service prices in some markets, such as Italy. According to Enders Analysis, this 2024 should be the breakeven year on a monthly basis next year and on an annual basis in 2025. All this with revenues that in the last three years, again according to the analysis company's calculations, would have grown by 79%, 41% and 45% respectively to reach about USD 3.2 billion in 2023.

The fight against piracy

From a system perspective, the great unknown (in this case positive) is related to the fight against audiovisual piracy. That just last year had a breakthrough with the new law 93/2023, which came into force at the beginning of August and gives Agcom intervention powers to obscure sites within 30 minutes from the notification of rights holders. The platform - which had been made available free of charge by the Lega Serie A to the Authority - went into operation.