DAZN raising monthly subscription price, will offer discounted annual plan

Starting next Monday (March 25), DAZN’s pricing structure is changing, as the streaming service that features many of boxing’s biggest stars will go from $9.99 a month with a 30-day free trial to $19.99 a month, or a $99.99 annual option for U.S. subscribers.

Obviously, the annual option is what you’re going to want if possible — and no, I’m not being told or paid to say that, it’s just the clearly better option. The $100 annual pass is a year of service for what you’ll pay $20 for monthly to get five months. The monthly plan is $240 a year total. The downside is you gotta spend $100 in a single pop, obviously, and that’s not ideal for everyone.

Those who are currently on the $9.99 monthly plan will be able to keep that for the next year.

DAZN Executive Vice President Joe Markowski says he’s prepared for the backlash to this move:

“Do I expect initial blowback from the U.S. boxing fan base? Yes, sure. It’s the nature of the 21st century. We are making this change after a significant research project. In the end, I believe they will be understanding and recognize the continued value, but I’ve got my tin hat over the abuse I’m expecting from social media. I will say we wouldn’t make any change without this analytic.”

DAZN launched in the United States in Sept. 2018, ahead of the Anthony Joshua-Alexander Povetkin fight. The price hike comes as the service is about to add a live look-in MLB show called “ChangeUp,” similar to the NFL RedZone channel that you’ve surely seen or at least heard of if you’re an NFL fan. They also offer Bellator MMA, plus some other sports that I don’t know anything about.

If you’re subscribing to DAZN purely for boxing, which probably at least 80% of the people reading this story on this web site are, then here’s a look at what they have on tap following Monday’s price switch, to give you a clear idea of what you’re paying for right away:

• March 30: Liam Smith vs Sam Eggington, Anthony Fowler vs Scott Fitzgerald, Joe Hughes vs Robbie Davies Jr
• March 30: Ryan Garcia vs Jose Lopez, Angel Acosta vs Ganigan Lopez
• April 13: Jaime Munguia vs Dennis Hogan
• April 20: Dereck Chisora vs Senad Gashi, Dave Allen vs Lucas Browne, Joe Cordina vs Andy Townend
• April 26: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Juan Francisco Estrada II, Daniel Roman vs TJ Doheny, Jessie Vargas vs Humberto Soto
• April 27: Regis Prograis vs Kiryl Relikh, Nonito Donaire vs Zolani Tete
• May 4: Canelo Alvarez vs Daniel Jacobs, David Lemieux vs John Ryder
• May 18: Josh Taylor vs Ivan Baranchyk (listed but at this point not expected to happen), Emmanuel Rodriguez vs Naoya Inoue
• May 18: Oleksandr Usyk vs Carlos Takam
• June 1: Anthony Joshua vs Jarrell Miller
• June 8 or 15: Gennady Golovkin vs TBA
• June 15: Mairis Briedis vs Krzysztof Glowacki, Yunier Dorticos vs Andrew Tabiti
• June 22: Demetrius Andrade vs Maciej Sulecki (probable)

If you pay monthly, the more expensive way, for April, May, and June, that’s $60. For that, you get Canelo-Jacobs, which is at least a $75 PPV anywhere else, plus Srisaket-Estrada II, Joshua-Miller, Golovkin’s return, the WBSS shows, and a good bit more. On paper, it’s still a strong value, and don’t forget that they have Canelo and Golovkin and Joshua, their current marquee stars, locked up long-term. There’s not likely to be any sudden, unexpected dip in quality of their boxing offerings.

What I suspect more fans will be uneasy about is that DAZN just launched here in September, so that means it only took them six months to jack the price up. That might give everyone the feeling that the more money they throw around locking up name fighters, the more likely we are to see our subscription prices increased again and again. But my gut tells me $20 a month is really as high as it’s going to go for the foreseeable future. You go beyond that and you’re really flirting with a lot of people just flat out not being able to afford it anymore, and that’s no good for anyone.