Streamer DAZN reopens door to negotiations over football broadcasting rights
The streaming platform DAZN has reopened the door to negotiations with telecoms providers over the broadcasting of Belgian football. The matches were at risk of disappearing from traditional TV after previous negotiations broke down.
The platform, which holds the broadcasting rights for the Jupiler Pro League, announced in mid-July that it had ended negotiations with major telecoms providers Telenet and Proximus. Without a sublicensing deal in place with local providers, Belgian football was set to disappear from traditional TV.
Last week, the consumer organisation Testaankoop announced its intention to refer the matter to the Belgian Competition Authority, as consumers would be adversely affected by the dominance of a single player.
However, on Monday, DAZN announced that it wanted to restart negotiations with both Telenet and Proximus. The precise timing of these talks remains unclear.
Pricing too high
In previous talks, both telecoms providers considered DAZN’s pricing demands to be too high, particularly given that many customers are cancelling traditional TV bundles in favour of streaming services.
The 2025-26 season began on Friday. DAZN announced on Monday that it was very satisfied with the viewing figures following the first round of matches, but did not provide any details. Both Telenet and Proximus said that, as expected, they had experienced a negative impact on subscriptions to their sports offerings.
© BELGA PHOTO TOM GOYVAERTS
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