Honeymoon in full swing for Kayo and Dazn
As Kayo CEO Julian Ogrin tells Mumbrella, being a sports streamer owned by the biggest global sports broadcaster is a pretty good position to be in.
Over 250,000 people are flooding Adelaide this weekend for the AFL’s Gather Round, and Kayo Sports have exclusive live rights for the Saturday games. Kayo sign-ups are up 16% year-on-year. And last week, London-based sports broadcaster Dazn finalised its takeover of Kayo’s parent company, Foxtel Group.
No wonder Kayo CEO Julian Ogrin seems so chipper.
“It’s exciting for us. We’re now a sports-led organisation in the Foxtel Group, and Kayo is a sports-only business, and to be bought out by a sports-led company that truly understands us and our IP is exciting.”
Kayo CEO Julian Ogrin
Ogrin says Kayo Sports was one of the main incentives for Dazn to pursue the deal.
“The IP that we have is something they were very interested in buying,” he says. “The team feels really proud of what they’ve done at Kayo for the last six years, and naturally, that feels like validation.”
“Kayo has always been regarded around the world as one of the best streaming services, from a customer-experience point of view, and so is Dazn.
“And by bringing us together, they’re going to get the best of our IP and the best of their IP coming together, eventually, one day.”
Kayo has 1.5 million subscribers in Australia, and currently holds a number of key sporting licences in Australia.
It has extensive cricket rights, and deals to broadcast every match of both the NRL and AFL — including the exclusive Saturday rights for both codes — as well as the Formula One, the netball, and Super Cars, all of which Ogrin notes, “start literally within two or three weeks of each other. It’s a very big period for us.”
It’s also an interesting period for the business. Dazn is a sporting behemoth. It currently operates in 200 countries, including Australia, and will no doubt rebrand Kayo Sports into Dazn.
In 2022, Dazn did just this, buying up sports broadcaster Eleven Sports — active in 17 markets across Europe and Southeast Asia — and folding its business operations into the Dazn platforms.
The final line of Foxtel’s announcement of the deal noted that “Foxtel will be known as ‘a DAZN Company,’ reinforcing its connection to a global leader in sports entertainment.”
No rebranding of Kayo Sports has yet been announced. Ogrin says the two businesses are currently in discovery mode.
“They’re going to help us, whether it’s content, whether it’s user experience, development, or branding.
“All these things are now in discovery mode, and then we come out the other end and work out where our IP can get exported, and where their IP can get imported. But that would be the guiding principle.”
Ogrin sees both brands as having the same vision.
“We’re all now first and foremost thinking about how we grow sport, which is exciting. I think from a customer point of view, this is the real benefit.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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