Like most Australian rugby league fans, there’s a good chance you’ve been hearing about DAZN a lot lately—if you’re not sure who they are, keep reading.
Pronounced ‘da-zone’, DAZN is a billion-dollar sports streaming service with content rights to some of the world’s highest profile football, boxing and motorsports events, including the recently completed 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Headquartered in London, DAZN is owned by a private investment group led by Sir Len Blavatnik, a 69-year-old dual US-UK citizen originally from Ukraine who also happens to be the majority owner of entertainment leviathan, Warner Music.
The DAZN business itself has actually been around since 2016, but given it recently acquired Foxtel from News Corp and Telstra—coupled with the ongoing NRL broadcast rights negotiations—it’s understandably getting a lot more airtime here in Australia of late.
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When the Foxtel Group acquisition was announced in April 2025, the chief executive of DAZN Shay Segev pointed to a bright future that would ‘unlock incredible opportunities for sports fans’ in Australia.
In what must be music to the ears of ARLC Chairman Peter V’landys, all indications are that DAZN doesn’t simply want to maintain their current slice of the NRL broadcast pie.
Rather, just like their current NRL co-broadcasters Nine Entertainment, they’re seeking to expand their reach under the next deal which begins in 2027.
To this end, V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo are currently overseas for high-level talks with DAZN along with other streaming giants including Netflix and Amazon, as reported by CODE Sports.
‘We want to be rewarded’
“I won’t discuss specific figures but it will be our biggest ever broadcast deal,” V’landys told News Corp earlier this year when discussing the upcoming broadcast negotiations.
“We have worked very hard to get the game to be the most watched sport in Australia—now, naturally, we want to be rewarded for that.”
Will DAZN end up holding—or indeed increasing—its share of the NRL broadcast rights?
It’s probably too early to say, but be assured they are a serious global business with deep pockets and big ambitions.
Something will have to give, so watch this space.