Exclusive: DAZN exec reports user growth across Women’s Football offering after paywall removal

Despite DAZN lifting the paywall for its Women’s Football offering less than two months ago, the move has so far seen an “uptick in registrations” on the platform, according to the co-CEO of DAZN Women’s Sport.

The sports streaming giant lifted the paywall across its Womens’s Football offering in the UK on January 23 as well as other markets, as part of a campaign advocating for the growth and investment of women’s football. The move came following its extensive coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, now providing free-to-air coverage of the UWCL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen Bundesliga, Saudi Women’s Premier League, Serie A Feminine, D1 Arkema, NWSL and other domestic leagues.

Speaking to DTVE, Hannah Brown who heads the newly launched DAZN Women’s Sport division alongside Esmeralda Negron, said although the campaign to deliver free coverage of women’s football to viewers is still in its early days, the impact has been positive for the company.

“Temple moments are hugely important,” she said, with the Euros and World Cups, we all recognise the importance of these kind of temple moments, that puts it on the agenda of our mums and dads and pals in the street who may be previously or normally don’t get involved or engaged in this stuff.”

However, Brown urges rather than just drawing more eyes to major live sports events that may occur every couple of years or football matches featuring popular clubs, consistent strong engagement is what DAZN is aiming for.

“Being aware of something is different to actively seeking something out to watch,” she said. “We can potentially get excited about England. We might get excited about some big matches of our favourite clubs, but week in week out engagement is the next step in really driving long term avidity.”

The DAZN Women’s Sport chief explained producing and delivering high-quality content does not always see the return on investment- where viewers are prepared to pay for that content.

Although the platform does attracts strong engagement from dedicated fans for leading football leagues, Brown said with its smaller football bundles of content available at a lower price point, “very few people make an active decision to subscribe for that content on a standalone basis.”

Commenting on the DAZN free Women’s Football YouTube channel, Brown cited its biggest audiences were across the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the US, with 25% of viewers watching viewers via the YouTube app on their TV.  Hence, the company recognised there was an opportunity to shift those audiences to the DAZN platform.

“We think we can convert that audience to our app as long as our app is well distributed and is on their Samsung or their Apple TV or whatever it might be…so that’s really the bedrock of the strategy,” she continued. “Free gives us a good opportunity to convert across a much bigger audience to the women’s game and allow them to engage day in, day out. And then the bit which is early stages, but where we see a big development opportunity is once you have a free proposition.”

DAZN reported it has become the world’s largest investor in women’s football broadcasting.