• Mascia said the freemium tier will broaden access to the company’s premium content
• DAZN has tweaked subscription offers to reflect consumer willingness to pay

Alice Mascia, DAZN’s chief executive for the DACH region, has highlighted the role Germany plays as a test market for the company as it looks to create a digital sports platform comprising of multiple services.

The company launched its first ever free ad-supported television (FAST) channel in Germany last year. It has also trialled other monetisation options in the country such as pay-per-view (PPV) and is set to launch a freemium tier imminently in the German market.

While DAZN doesn’t always introduce new features in Germany – its merchandising and betting offerings were first rolled out in Spain – Mascia emphasised the importance of the DACH market when experimenting with new product integrations for its streaming platform.

“We say in the industry [that] if it works in Germany, it works everywhere,” Mascia said, speaking on day one of SportsPro Madrid. “We have been using Germany as a test market for a lot of our direct-to-consumer strategies.

“The way I look at it is broader content monetisation, a little bit less traditional than just a pay subscription as we started the business originally, or as other competitors that are a little bit more established than us like Sky will do.

“We have changed and improved the way we were monetising from a subscription perspective, as our rights portfolio has significantly improved over time. But we have also introduced different packages to reflect a different willingness to pay, different interests and, at the same time, also a different value of the rights.”

‘If it works in Germany, it works everywhere.’ – Alice Mascia, DAZN’s CEO for DACH, on how the company tests its DTC strategy in Germany.#SPMadrid #SportsBiz pic.twitter.com/kiOVxnsF89

— SportsPro (@SportsPro) November 28, 2023

DAZN’s rights portfolio in the DACH region includes domestic coverage of German soccer’s Bundesliga, as well as the Uefa Champions League, National Basketball Association (NBA) and MotoGP.

Regarding the launch of its freemium tier, Mascia said it shows DAZN’s commitment to broadening access to its sports coverage, even if it means putting some of its flagship content in front of the pay wall. The move will allow customers with an account to watch some of the company’s premium content for free, without needing to pay a subscription fee.

“We’re a big believer, particularly with the introduction of the freemium layer, where not every [piece of] content needs to be monetised behind the paywall, that broader access to sports is definitely a key for creating success for the platform,” Mascia said.

“I will say that the one-fits-all subscription world doesn’t speak to the current status [of consumer behaviour] and doesn’t speak to the future.”

DAZN has also entered into a partnership with Fanatics, whose online sports retail platform is being integrated into the company’s streaming platform. It means fans can buy merchandise directly from the DAZN mobile app, with an embedded online experience set to be launched next year.

Mascia said that the integration of Fanatics will have an “editorial twist”, with select merchandise advertised alongside the content it relates to. The retail shop will also be integrated into DAZN’s watch parties feature, providing its audience with an enhanced viewing experience.

“Our ambition is to become a platform for all things sports,” she added. “We don’t want just to be relevant for the 90 minutes of the match. I think we want to be relevant for everything around sports for a customer.

“We believe that merchandising and ecommerce in general is a big opportunity for us, and the opportunity to partner with a global leader like Fanatics was really important to us.”

Get access to richer content, exclusive reports, unparalleled business intelligence, and community benefits to help you navigate the next frontier of sport and make more informed decisions with a SportsPro+ Premium membership. Discover more here.