Bosco Aranguren, CEO of DAZN Spain: “Telcos are our competition, but also our partners”

El CEO de DAZN Spain, Bosco Aranguren, addresses in this interview the state of the platform, its challenges in a hypercompetitive market, the innovation behind the platform and the challenges involved in bringing the traditional sports consumer to a new ecosystem.

DAZN, with barely seven years of life in the world of on-demand platforms and turning five in February 2024 in Spain, has intelligently played its part to establish itself as a featured brand in the world of video on demand. With strategic decisions markets and a global vision focused on growth and user experience, has been able to enter and consolidate itself in a market of extreme competition, marked by the increasingly aggressive rights auctions (of which they inevitably form part) and alluding directly to a spectator who had been enjoying the sporting experience in the same way for decades.

Its presence in Spain had a soft launch with MotoGP y Formula 1, but the explosion came as the brand itself recognizes with the acquisition of part of the rights to LaLiga, the highest football competition in Spain. Since then, the number of subscribers continues to grow, production resources have multiplied and its identity has been consolidated to make viewers understand that the DAZN experience is not just another window to watch their favorite team, but one viewing experience unique in the Spanish offer.

Waiting for the umpteenth cambio de paradigma in the ecosystem of sports rights in Spain (possibly led by international video on demand agents), Bosco Arangure helps to understand in this interview the evolution and present of DAZN in Spain, one of the main markets for the firm globally.

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Spain, key market for DAZN

In just five months the fifth anniversary of DAZN in Spain will be celebrated. What were the objectives you had when launching DAZN in the Spanish market and to what extent have you managed to achieve them?

When DAZN began its journey in Spain in 2019, we had a very clear ambition to be a player relevant within the Spanish market, as well as ensuring that Spain was one of the main markets globally. What happened? As you can imagine, the pandemic completely affected all sporting events and made us take the reins. Maybe it was not the time to make that landing.

Everything changed after the pandemic, when we acquired the rights to LaLiga for five seasons. The bet was evident, clear and strong. That's when the whole team is reinforced and when I come in. Since then, Spain has established itself as one of the reference markets within DAZN at a global level, which are four: Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain.

To what extent has obtaining the rights to LaLiga been vital for the growth and consolidation of DAZN in Spain?

Soccer, basically, was what allowed to change dimension. That LaLiga became part of our rights had a very positive effect; directly, we double our number of subscribers.

The world of sports is closely linked to live broadcasts, but DAZN is notoriously committed to on-demand content. Based on your statistics, does live streaming continue to be the preferred option for your subscribers in Spain?

Today, the direct keep moving the needle. It is the king in terms of content, but it is true that we try to complement this live show with our own productions, since it helps the user find more value within the platform. We believe that those who are truly fans of a sport are not only fans of live sports, but also have curiosity to discover more about the competitions or the athletes.

In fact, many of us insist that the full DAZN experience It is offered within the platform, since it allows you to discover content related to your sport of reference. Thanks to all that content, we know that the engagement The amount a user has on the platform is triple what they can have through a linear channel.

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DAZN and the Spanish audiovisual industry

How does DAZN Spain structure its alliances with the audiovisual industry for the production of this original content or for the personalization of the content they manage?

The added value that we provide as DAZN is precisely that customization layer. It depends on the competition or the sport, but we always try to provide context in matches or races by making a preview or a post. All these formats are our own production and we make them in different ways. It can be from study, where we are committed to innovation such as with moto GP, or directly live from the football field.

He 50% of the team of DAZN Spain is dedicated to production of content.

We have also been very concerned not only with achieving that quality of production and closeness with the public, but also with seeking our tone. It is something that I always discuss with Quim Domènech (Ndr: Senior Vice President of Content at DAZN): for me, the challenge is that the viewer chose to watch the content on DAZN even if it could be seen on different platforms or channels; either because of the way it is narrated, the experience at the client level or as a consumer.

Does DAZN Spain rely on internal production teams to create this type of content?

We make a model híbrido. We rely on partners highly recognized companies that guarantee production quality and access to the most cutting-edge resources, but we also have a large internal team: the 50% of the team of DAZN Spain is dedicated to content production.

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Interactivity and participation in broadcasts

DAZN Spain offers participatory or interactive elements during broadcasts. Do you consider that these additions improve the sports viewing experience and help position the platform in the market?

The way of broadcasting a live sporting event has not changed much in the last decades. What's going on? That the moment a platform begins to have a lot of data, it realizes that the traditional way of narrating and transmitting a sporting event does not end up engaging certain audiences. I myself have a 13-year-old son who is a football fan and, unless we are talking about a Clásico or a Derby, it is very difficult for him to spend 90 minutes watching a match. The consumption of it is radically different, and it is not the only group. I have many close cases in which the attention window is increasingly smaller, perhaps due to the excess of impacts we receive during the day, or because they are used to watching content with two or three screens at the same time.

At the moment when a platform starts to have lots of data, he realizes that the traditional way to narrate and transmit a sporting event it doesn't end up hooking to certain audiences.

All this invites us to reflect on how we can reattach to this type of user, who clearly demands a different experience. From there comes DAZN, our innovation center, which worked on how to offer a much more interactive experience. The result is The DAZN Stand, and interaction space in which we can verify that the data of engagement at the same time that the content is broadcast, they are very spectacular. It is an experience that debuted in Spain and has been so positive that it is already being developed for the rest of the markets.

What are the requirements that the user accustomed to more traditional sports broadcasts demands of DAZN? Are you looking for greater freedom? An expanded experience?

In Spain, football is almost a religion and the public has consumed it in the same way for the last 40 years. This made us think about what we should do. Was it necessary for us to force them to move to a experience OTT digital? The solution was quite specific and unique, since we prefer to be disruptors, but without breaking anything. Therefore, we create alliances with partners like Movistar Plus+ or Orange so they could watch football through their STBs.

What we have also seen is that those same people, who see us through linear television, star in activation peaks during holiday periods, when they are in a second home or on vacation. People activate access through the platform to view content and once they discover that experience, they suddenly realize that accessing expanded content through the platform is much easier.

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DAZN in the face of the complex Spanish market

DAZN Spain entered an extremely competitive market with Movistar Plus+ as the main rival when it comes to the acquisition of rights. How do you live with a player so relevant in the audiovisual industry?

In recent times, and until the arrival of DAZN, sports content was closely linked to Movistar Plus+. Then we arrived with an initial proposal with MotoGP, Formula 1 and some additional competition. We observe that what we are doing is entering a very competitive market dominated by a player What is Movistar Plus+. We could do two things: take each other to kill or try to be partners.

The Movistar Plus+ model has very high quality content, but linked to a connectivity proposal, although now they have launched another different proposal. If you want to access the content, you must have a landline, mobile phone, internet and television service. If you add all these elements you find a monthly fee to access sports that is high.

We observed that what we were doing was entering a very competitive market dominated by a player what is Movistar Plus+. We could do two things: take a matar or try to be partners.

At the Spanish market level, the Telcos that are suffering the most are the large companies that are maintaining value with this type of initiatives. In parallel, they break into the market players as Másmóvil o Digi with a very competitive connectivity proposal. We complement this connectivity proposal at an affordable price.

For LaLiga, we reached an agreement with Movistar and Orange so that their users could continue enjoying the 10 games. And, in addition, we launched a value proposal with a more attractive price to try to reach a larger base. That is what has allowed us to evolve so much. Therefore, telcos They are our competition, but also our partners.

Video on demand platforms such as Prime Video or Disney+ are betting on the acquisition of sports rights to reinforce their VOD commitment. How does DAZN Spain face the possible entry of a new competitor of such caliber in the Spanish sports rights market?

In other countries like France or Germany these agents are betting on sports. In Spain, what we have done is directly reach a distribution agreement. You can access our content through our channel at Prime Video if you are an Amazon Prime customer. We are committed to a model that allows us to make our contents as accessible as possible.

Over the past few months, video-on-demand platforms have faced an unstable period, marked by a slowdown in their growth. This has led them to opt for more aggressive advertising models or a change in their rates. Has this rethinking of the VOD market dedicated to fiction and entertainment also been extended to DAZN?

Logically, we want the Spanish area to be a profitable and sustainable company in the time. We live off the income of sports fans who pay a subscription for access to our content. But we also want to offer a series of products and services that may be of interest to our subscribers in a very prudent, unintrusive and tried to maximize that customer experience. Little by little, subscribers will be able to see more options of this type.

In October of last year we launched DAZN Bet, our betting spin-off, and we see that it does indeed make sense and is working well. We have also reached agreements with Fanatics, for everything that is merchandising, and with Diamond for tickets y hospitality of sporting events.

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UHD, FAST and opportunities, on DAZN

How does DAZN address the growing demand from users for resolutions such as UHD or immersive audio proposals?

It is a constant demand from users. When you access content, and that content is live, you want to have a brutal experience, regardless of whether you watch it on a mobile or a big screen. This has forced us to offer an output to our content in 1080p by default. It is an important qualitative leap, but we do not want to stop there. If there is a real technological need on the part of the user, we immediately think what does it mean at the development level and how we can bring this experience to them. We are working on it and the results will be seen shortly.

Apart from the direct and on-demand experience, DAZN Spain has several linear channels. Are these experiences valuable and meaningful to DAZN's performance?

Beyond our own linear channels, we have those of Eurosport and Red Bull, and the audience numbers are good. We are not at all closed to hosting other types of channels in this sense, since they can coexist perfectly within the platform. Outside of it, we are exploring the FAST world We have launched two channels globally, women's sports and boxing, and Germany is serving as a pilot country for other channels of this type. Seeing the European experiences, it is possible that they will have their adaptation to Spain in the future.

Returning to the imminent fifth anniversary of DAZN in Spain, how does the company face its present and future in the market?

I see the present with pride, since we have consolidated in a very fast way. When I joined DAZN my parents didn't know what I was talking about, but today anyone not only knows the brand, but also knows how to pronounce it, which has merit and is the result of spectacular work by the team.

If there is a real technological need on the part of the user, we immediately think what does it mean at the development level and how can we get this to them? experiencia.

I see the future very optimistic. We can observe that the consumption of sports within technological platforms is increasing and we can accompany this phenomenon with improvements in quality, tone and experience of user. We want to know what types of sports attract users the most and very proactively offer them content so that they find value every time they access the platform.

In terms of things that will come, surely there will be many opportunities, but there is a dark cloud on our horizon, which is the issue of piracy. It keeps me awake at night: it cannot be that Spain occupies the third or fourth position within the European panorama with regard to the consumption of piratería. This makes it difficult for us to get where we want and has repercussions for the user, the entire production chain and DAZN itself.

An interview by Sergio Julián Gómez

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