By Charles Brun: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s going to speak with DAZN to try and get them to increase the monthly subscription for subscribers from $20 to $50, and he says reasons for wanting the increase is that he wants them to stay. U.S boxing fans want to continue to enjoy DAZN, but if the rates are increased to the levels Hearn wants, they may not be able to afford it.
Unfortunately increasing the monthly subscription by more than double could have the opposite effect with subscribers jumping ship in droves. What Hearn may not understand is how costly it is for the average household to pay for cable television, and for their internet.
In some cases the monthly bills are approaching $200. That’s a lot of money for some boxing fans to have to pay. Then when you tack on another $50 per month for DAZN, if Hearn gets his way, that could be the breaking point.
Hearn wants DAZN to increase rates from $20 to $50 a month
“Joshua-Ruiz was three times what Joshua got on Showtime. Even in America, it’s approaching a million audience [on DAZN],” said Eddie Hearn to SI Boxing with Chris Mannix. “That’s a huge number. One of the problems we had recruiting fighters in the early days was, ‘Oh, no one is watching DAZN.’ They are. More people are watching.
“We’re getting bigger audience numbers than Showtime. Charlo just boxed on Showtime and got 300,000. You got Jacobs-Chavez, and that’s going to do 500-600,000 on DAZN. Joshua did nearly a million on DAZN. I so believe in the product of DAZN for the value for a fight fan.
“I’m actually going to say to DAZN, ‘I think you should bump the monthly fee up.’ It’s $19.99 a month. Make it $50 a month. We don’t want you to come and go. We want you to stay and be a part of this community, learn more about boxing, digest the fighters, and grow with us,” said Hearn.
Even $20 per month is pushing it for some subscribers, because a lot of them are already dealing with skyhigh cable prices. It’s unclear whether cable is super expensive in the UK like it is in the U.S. If not, then would explain why Hearn being eager to have DAZN bump up the prices to $50 per month.
Oleksandr Usyk is DANGEROUS fight for Joshua – Hearn
“He’s not afraid to drop a belt,” said Hearn about Anthony Joshua. “His dream is to be undisputed. I think it’s bad for the sport that the governing bodies could affect that by lacking some common sense by saying, ‘Actually, this is how the order should go.’ It’s not like he’s saying, ‘That’s it,'” said Hearn on Oleksandr Usyk wanting Joshua fight next. “He can fight someone like [Dereck] Chisora, and then go and fight Joshua.
“But if Joshua gets beat by [Kubrat] Pulev or injured or wants to take the Wilder fight, and Usyk misses out on the Joshua fight. So I believe, Usyk needs another fight. I think it’s a very dangerous fight for him to fight Joshua. And I think it’s a very dangerous fight for Joshua.
“I think Usyk-Joshua can be an absolute colossal event, and Joshua would do it one million percent,” said Hearn. “But we really don’t want to drop a belt. It can’t be both of you [IBF and WBO at same time]. What are you doing? Forcing us to vacate a belt? That’s bad for the sport in my opinion,” said Hearn.
Just listening to what Hearn is saying about Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) being dangerous for Anthony Joshua, we could see AJ vacate his WBO belt. Giving up that belt will free Joshua up from the worry of having to defend against the crafty 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk.
At the same time, it opens up a second revenue stream for Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing stable. If Usyk wins the vacant WBO belt, then Hearn would have 2 heavyweight champions. He could then match Joshua against Usyk in a unification fight.