By Charles Brun: For fans that want to watch Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury on DAZN, they’ll need to be prepared to pay extra to see it on pay-per-view, according to Eddie Hearn. He told the Athletic that DAZN could only stream some of the fights if it’s on pay-per-view.
It looks like the PPV model isn’t dead, after all. In the eyes of a lot of fans, DAZN was supposed to be the end of pay-per-view. Unfortunately, that doesn’t look like the case.
For the people that subscribed to DAZN believing that they would no longer need to pay the exorbitant costs for pay-per-view events, it looks like they’re going to be disappointed by what Hearn has to say.
Will U.S fans pay extra to see Joshua vs. Fury?
While that’s not a huge shocker for U.S boxing fans, who have twice paid to see Deontay Wilder vs. Fury on pay-per-view, it’s depressing news for the people that subscribe to DAZN. Many of them believed that their monthly subscription would cover exciting fights like Joshua vs. Fury. But if they’re now required to pay for those on pay-per-view, many of the fans will jump overboard and cancel their subscriptions to DAZN.
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of alternatives for the average American fans that want to watch boxing. If they cancel their subscriptions to DAZN, then that leaves them with ESPN and ESPN+. It costs $5 per month to subscribe to ESPN+, and you still need to pay to see the big fights on pay-per-view.
“I wouldn’t like to see DAZN become a PPV platform because that’s not the ethos. But I do think to introduce the capacity to do it would be interesting… The only way they’re going to be able to air certain fights is PPV. Fights like Fury-AJ,” said Hearn to @TheAthleticBOX.
DAZN hasn’t yet said anything about charging their subscribers more if they want to watch the big-ticket fights like Joshua vs. Fury, but if that does play out, they could lose customers. The problem is, there aren’t any great fights being shown right now.
U.S boxing fans probably won’t want to keep paying their monthly subscription with DAZN if they’re stuck seeing low-level fights involving Hearn’s Matchroom Fight Camp shows. These are mostly pedestrian match-ups with a mediocre finale involving heavyweights Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin.
How much should Joshua-Fury sell for?
It’ll be interesting to see how much Joshua-Fury sells for in the United States on pay-per-view. With Furying fighting on ESPN and Joshua on DAZN, it’s likely to be a dual pay-per-view broadcast involving those two networks. If U.S fans are only asked to pay another $10 to see Joshua fight Fury, it won’t be too bad.
But if they’re asked to pay $70 to $100+, fans will balk and not bother. With the propensity of illegal streams popping up on the night of the big fights, it’s likely that many fans will turn in that direction rather than pay a huge amount of money to see Joshua vs. Fury.
It might not sell at all. Joshua and Fury are foreign fighters, and the Americans might not be eager to pay $75 to watch these two battle it out, especially if they’re jobless due to the weak economy. Besides, Joshua embarrassed himself in his U.S debut last year at Madison Square Garden in New York in losing to Andy Ruiz Jr. Since then, Joshua hasn’t been back to America.
If DAZN is going to charge fans to watch Joshua and Fury fight, then hopefully, they sell it at a reasonable price given the circumstances involving the world. It’s not just that. The DAZN subscribers are going to feel betrayed if suddenly they’re being asked to pay extra to watch the interesting fights.
If they’re going to be paying just to see Hearn’s backyard events involving his Matchroom Fight Camp cards, that’s going to over well with American fans. Those are domestic level fights, and the main event between Whyte and 40-year-old Povetkin is not compelling.
Some U.S fans would like to see Whyte, but they prefer that he face younger guys that can potentially beat him like Andy Ruiz Jr, Filip Hrgovic, Daniel Dubois, and Oleksandr Usyk.