DAZN Will Offer Canelo-Callum Smith Fight Through PPV

On the day, when the DAZN streaming service launched in boxing with humungous long term deal with Canelo Alvarez as their biggest star, they taunted and bragged that “pay-per-view was dead.”

Now, 2 1/2 years later the streaming service and the four division world champ will make his Saturday night 2020 title fight available on….. wait for it….. Pay-per-view.

Sportico.com had the story first early Tuesday that DAZN would be partnering with “In Demand” pay-per-view service to offer the Alvarez vs. Callum Smith, WBA – WBC Super-middleweight title fight Saturday night from San Antonio, Texas, for a suggested price of $69.95,

ICYMI: @DAZNBoxing is making this weekend's @Canelo fight available to cable subscribers for $69.99. It's not a PPV, the company says, but rather a subscription offer that will hopefully help the streaming service reach a new audience https://t.co/su1wPnKiiV

— Eben Novy-Williams (@novy_williams) December 15, 2020

“In Demand” is the largest pay-per-view provider for events and has the likes of Comcast, AT&T and Verizon along its cable and digital pay-per-view providers.

It has definitely been a strange year on all fronts in 2020, and this latest development in televised boxing with Canelo and going back to pay-per-view fits right in. DAZN had famously publicized that they had gotten Canelo to agree to an exclusive deal for 11 fights for a reported $365 million in 2018.

This Tuesday revelation comes on the heels of Alvarez having successfully divorced himself from promoter Oscar De La Hoya after filing a $280 million lawsuit against he and Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN for not getting him in the ring sooner in 2020.

Once, De La Hoya was out of the way, Alvarez quickly did a one fight deal with Matchroom Boxing and promoter Eddie Hearn to fight the unbeaten Brit, Smith this Saturday at the Alamodome.

Matchroom already has an existing agreement with DAZN to show fights in the U.S. and the U.K., so Alvarez’s fight naturally came right back to the streaming service.

But obviously, as sportico.com’s item lays out there is a large segment of Canelo’s fan base that wants to simply buy the fight through their cable or digital box to see it Saturday night.

For their part, DAZN is charging new customers $19.99 to sign up for December through their streaming service and see the Canelo fight, and they are offering a four month free trial to anyone who purchases Saturday’s PPV that can be used from January through April.

Their Vice President of Subscriptions, Rob Stecklow, told the site ,

“It’s not pay-per-view,” he said. “People may think that, but it’s just not true. If it were true, we would just sell you the fight and not give you the four months of access. We’re trying to create a long-term relationship with boxing fans in the U.S.; we just want to find them and want them to find us.

“…When you watch an NFL game on NBC, they use time within the telecasts to promote other NBCUniversal properties,” Stecklow continued. “When you’re watching this fight, we will promote our upcoming shows, and more importantly, how you can redeem your gift code to get access because you bought the pay-per-view subscription.

If you’re watching at your friend’s house, we want you to know what DAZN is and how to access it.”

Obviously, it’s in everyone’s interest to get as many people as possible to buy the fight. And clearly, Alvarez stands to make significant money, as an incentive to have done this fight deal, off new DAZN subscribers and now, those who buy the PPV.

Canelo has traditionally sold anywhere from one million or more PPVs to his biggest recent fights. However, that number this time is ambitious, when so many that already have DAZN or could sign up for the app/streaming service for just $19.99 for December, might have been inclined to pay for the PPV.