Turner (TWX) has announced plans to launch “Bleacher Report Live”, an untethered (i.e. no subscription needed) premium sports streaming service. Designed to serve as “the central hub for both the discovery and consumption of live sports content”, B/R Live will “provide direct access to live games for purchase on an individual or subscription basis.” The new service will launch on April 7th with Johnny Manziel’s debut in The Spring League; Turner is offering a free preview period.
Fan Marino: The B/R Live virtual network will include UEFA Champions League matches, EUFA Europa League matches, 65 NCAA Championships and the PGA Championship (plus a lot more); but, it’s their partnership with the NBA that will put B/R Live on the map. Push notifications are among B/R’s strengths and its “House of Highlights” brand has over 8.6 million engaged millennial basketball fans following on Instagram. The ability to reach those users during crucial moments of games, with the opportunity to watch live in-app (via NBA League Pass) at a reduced price (think: $.99 for last quarter), means the future is here (and Turner has a winner). As noted in Tuesday’s newsletter, there are a ton of digital video broadcasting services (with more to come); this is one that will succeed.
Howie Long-Short: One digital video streaming service I didn’t mention yesterday was DAZN (pronounced Da Zone), as it’s owned by the Perform Group; a subsidiary of privately held Access Industries. There is one way to play DAZN through, Dentsu; a Japanese advertising firm that trades publicly on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the symbol (TYO: 4324). Dentsu recently invested in DAZN as part of a deal “which made the service available to customers of mobile phone operator NTT Docomo.” No information has been released relating to the size of the investment or the valuation placed on DAZN.
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