DAZN: Grab the remote

The GIST: Saturday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) final marked the end of DAZN’s first year broadcasting the tournament. The day before Lyon’s big win, DAZN VP of rights partner relations Katie Smith broke down the data on why the streamer is confident that its tourney coverage will drive paying subscribers.

The details: Though numbers for the final aren’t yet in, the semis saw DAZN’s YouTube subscription rates rise from 275K to 319K as six million tuned in to the matches for free. The streamer’s dedicated YouTube channel helped unlock major markets — the top five for viewership this season were the U.S., the U.K., France, Spain and Germany.

• DAZN aired all 61 UWCL games this season to over 230 countries and territories on both YouTube and its paid platform. Of that audience, 55% were aged 18–34 and a whopping 80% were men. Who says men don’t watch women’s sports?

Zooming out: DAZN’s deal to air the UWCL aligns with its larger strategy of acquiring local rights to niche sports. The company also stands out in the uber-competitive streaming world by intentionally growing its platform via women’s sports.

• It’s a strategy that should pay dividends: A 2021 study found women’s sports fans to be more innovative and engaged than their counterparts in men’s sports. But are you really surprised?