DAZN scores Japan deal
June 25, 2020
Global sports streaming service DAZN is partnering with trade body the Japan Cable and Telecommunications Association (JCTA), to bring DAZN to millions of cable TV households in Japan.
Subscribers of participating cable TV partners will now be able to add a DAZN subscription to their monthly cable TV bill without the need to register a credit card or other payment information and then watch their favourite sports via the DAZN app on their set top box. The service will be available on 10 cable TV providers in the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Shinetsu, Tokai, Sanyou, Sanin areas by July 2020, and it will expand to more than 50 companies by the end of this year.
This is the latest in a series of recent partnerships with leading telecoms and pay TV partners in Japan aimed at making live sport more accessible to fans than ever before. In December 2019, DAZN launched on the new J:COM LINK set-top box, allowing customers of the largest cable company in Japan to sign up and pay via the J:COM bill for the first time.
DAZN has also rolled-out ‘Direct Carrier Billing’ with telcos KDDI and Softbank. Subscribers of Softbank, Y!Mobile, au, UQ Mobile can now register quickly and easily by paying for DAZN on their mobile phone bill. NTT docomo users continue to be able to enjoy DAZN via the DAZN for docomo service.
These initiatives form part of the DAZN for Operators programme, through which DAZN collaborates with TV and telecoms operators to provide improved streaming experiences for sports fans and generate new revenue streams and value for partners.
Live sports have now re-started on DAZN, including Nippon Professional Baseball, Premier League, Serie A and La Liga. The J League restarts on July 4th and the Formula 1 season gets going with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5th.