SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Zander Berlinski on the Quick International Success of NFL Game Pass The streaming company has helped the NFL grow its presence overseas By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, December 13, 2024 - 2:47 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
A major goal of the NFL this season has been international expansion. That's evident by the increasing number of regular-season games played outside the U.S. This season, the league played five games off U.S. soil: one in Brazil, three in London, and another in Berlin.
With that international reach naturally came a rethinking of the league's overseas live-media rights and distribution. In the second year of a 10-year deal, the NFL relies on DAZN as distributor of live game coverage through add-on streaming product NFL Game Pass. Purchasing NFL Game Pass, DAZN subscribers get full access to every NFL game - regular season, playoffs, and the Super Bowl - making it a linchpin of the league's global ambitions.
SVG sat down with Zander Berlinski, SVP, strategy and business development, DAZN Group, to discuss the product's success since the NFL's international product migrated to its platform, what viewing tendencies he has noticed in international markets, and why this is an exciting trend for sports leagues of all sizes.
What are the highlights for DAZN in regard to the NFL Game Pass project?
It has been really good. We took over the product at the beginning of last season and grew the subscriber base over 30%, which was a great first-year result. We had a bunch of success on attracting new fans to the platform. From that perspective, this year is off to a similar year-over-year growth rate, which is great.
A couple key things have been very exciting from our perspective: innovating from a product perspective and bringing new features and benefits to customers to go beyond the streaming experience.
This year, we launched the Ultimate tier, sort of a second tier of the product. With it, you get certain benefits from a streaming perspective, whether that be UltraHD (when available) or Dolby 5.1 audio, and you also get certain benefits beyond the core streaming experience.
I think both DAZN and the NFL were excited about using the power of our platform and tech to create an experience that moves toward becoming sort of a digital home for an NFL fan internationally in all the various touchpoints that they want to engage with.
We launched NFL Game Pass on Amazon channels in six markets this season, which has helped increase the exposure of the product to reach new fans and allow them to watch it where they want to. Also, holistically, distribution - all the platforms we are on - was one of the main reasons the NFL wanted to come to DAZN, which was a significant increase relative to where they were. We continue to add platforms, and we're quite distribution-agnostic as a company.
How important are the NFL's international games for you and the product?
From a key-moments perspective, international games are a really big moment for us because they become cultural moments and go beyond the avid diehard NFL fan. It starts to engage the broader sports audience in those markets.
The Brazil game being added this year in Week One was a great one. Obviously, London and Germany, as always, were great, and the number of those games will increase in future years. We're excited about that.
The other big moments tend to correlate with the overall NFL calendar. Thanksgiving, granted it is a U.S. holiday, has appeal internationally from an NFL-calendar perspective, given the focus on the matchups and the three games being on Thursday in a good time zone for most of the main European audience.
Have any regions or markets where the NFL hasn't physically visited yet surprised you in their interest in NFL Game Pass?
We've seen good uptake in Mexico. They've had a game there in the past, and the league may try to go back there in the future, but Mexico has been really strong.
To your point, where we've also seen strength - I think this correlates not necessarily to NFL interests but also speaks to some of the broader strategic narratives of why they wanted to come into DAZN - is in our core markets. Those are markets like Japan, Italy, Spain, where we own the core domestic broadcast for a lot of the Tier 1 sports. In Germany, we have Bundesliga and Champions League; in Japan, we have the J League and a good portion of their domestic baseball teams. We promote pretty heavily to those users and give, in certain instances, special promotions through CRM or on platform.
I think the scale of our base internationally was one of the main reasons the NFL wanted to come do this partnership with us. They had done a very good job over eight-10 years building a platform that, on an independent basis, found a lot of the diehard NFL fans who were seeking it out, but, to get to the next level of growth, they felt it would be difficult to grow on a pure standalone basis. Inside a broader sports ecosystem, where we have millions of subscribers on the app each day, we can promote the app. That was a quite appealing part of the partnership.
Speaking broadly, what have you learned about international consumers of the NFL that is different from those who have grown up with the NFL in the U.S.?
It's interesting. I think there are probably a couple different cohorts that you can think about. There is a cohort that is quite similar to the U.S. audience. Those are diehard fans, whether expats who live abroad or people who grew up following the game because of a relative. Those fans were on the product already when we migrated it or are coming in Day 1 of the season. They're getting the product because they want to make sure they don't miss every game or the games of a specific team.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
12/05/2026
CVP, one of Europe's leading suppliers of professional video and broadcast solutions, has appointed Randy Koeman as Sales Manager, Netherlands, marking anot...
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Zander Berlinski on the Quick International Success of NFL Game Pass The streaming company has helped the NFL grow its presence overseas By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
