Eddie Hearn wants DAZN to more than double monthly price

The sports streaming service DAZN is now home to Bellator MMA, Combate Americas, and boxing action featuring superstars like Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua. Fans can access all of that combat sports content for $19.99 a month, or $99.99 for an annual membership. Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn would like to see that rate increase — by a lot.

Hearn, who promotes Anthony Joshua, has witnessed DAZN’s recent growth, and believes the service is becoming a must-have for fight fans, particularly those that follow boxing.

“Joshua-[Andy] Ruiz was three times what Joshua got on Showtime. Even in America, it’s approaching a million audience [on DAZN],” Eddie Hearn told Chris Mannix (via BoxingNews24/ The Body Lock). “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. [Jermell] 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.”

Hearn then argued for a massive price hike, suggesting DAZN boost its monthly fee from $19.99 to $50. Considering that rival streaming services like ESPN+, which features a wealth of UFC content, costs less than $50 for an entire year, this suggestion is likely to be very unpopular with budge-concious fight fans.

“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,” Hearn said. “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.”

What do you think of this suggestion from Eddie Hearn? Do you think DAZN should boost its prices?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/2/2020.