First off, not a single soul in the United States gives a **** about DAZN, much less can they even find them. Signing a deal with that company would be a death sentence for the league.laxtreme56 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:36 amCourt various media outlets, Fox and ESPN aren't going to pay a penny to air the games, but DAZN or Amazon may shell out $10-15 million for a Thursday night game of the week, that would cover 50-75% of payroll before a single ticket or T-shirt is sold. The XFL is not conducive to a bubble tournament, people in Tampa aren't going to care about the Vipers if they physically can't watch them at Raymond James Stadium.
Second, as intriguing as going online-only may seem, it's only intriguing on paper. Consider: Fox pays the NFL over $650 million per year just for Thursday Night Football. Amazon pays a tenth of that for the same games and doesn't have to foot any production expenses. That's because, despite all the buzz about online-only deals, broadband isn't always reliable everywhere, and far more people watch TV over-the-air, on cable and/or satellite than on an Internet stream. If ESPN and FOX won't pay for the XFL, then Amazon won't either. Heck, about the only online platform that would have the near-ubiquitous reach to compare with TV as we know it is Facebook Inc.—and they're not buying.
The XFL needs a broadly available, traditional television partner to draw enough viewers to make this venture worthwhile. The free-airtime deals they got with ESPN and FOX are likely the best deal they or anyone else are going to get, unless they're starved for content (which may be the case in fall 2020).