It seems that many sports fans in Japan are upset by the increase in the monthly fee for “DAZN,” which handles flat-rate video distribution services for sports such as the Meiji Yasuda Life J League, overseas soccer, and professional baseball.
DAZN started sports video distribution service in Japan on August 23, 2016. In addition to broadcasting the J-League games from the 2017 season, the distribution of major European leagues such as the Premier League and LaLiga has started one after another. In 2018, live distribution of professional baseball began, and since then, many sports such as tennis, motor sports, rugby, and American football have been broadcast.
Among them, DAZN announced on the 21st of this month to the contractor that the price will be raised from the 22nd of next month. “Since the start of the DAZN service in August 2016, DAZN has distributed the Meiji Yasuda Life J League, professional baseball, soccer representatives from Japan, etc., and also distributed DAZN original content, but it will continue to be even more in the future. We will revise the price to deliver a premium sports experience. The new price will be applied sequentially from Tuesday, February 22, this year. ” With this price revision, the monthly fee will increase from 1925 yen (including tax) to 3000 yen.
Sports fans in Japan have argued against this, saying “What should I do …” and “It’s too expensive.” In addition, soccer fans have also commented on SNS, “Get the right to broadcast CL” and “I feel like the number of soccer fans will decrease.”
DAZN signed a long-term contract with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in September last year until 2028. He has won the rights to broadcast all AFC-sponsored games, including the World Cup Qualifiers, the AFC Asian Cup, and the AFC Champions League (ACL). As a result, there were concerns that the number of soccer fans in Japan would decrease due to the fact that the away game for the Japanese national team in the final Asian qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup Qatar was no longer broadcast on terrestrial broadcasting.
