DAZN Watch Party
DAZN, the live sports streaming service, is leading innovation in developing the potential of watch parties. While modest in its capability at present, DAZN is pushing beyond communal viewing to transform Watch Party into a hub where fans can also celebrate their fandom, regardless of the device. DAZN aims to unify older viewers preferring a lean back experience with younger generations who want to lean in and interact socially with the live broadcast event.
Launched two years ago, DAZN’s watch party feature allows up to four subscribers to collectively watch and engage during a live match. Like most watch party services, it is pitched as a tool for helping family and friends enjoy a sporting experience collectively. The user experience feels like a combination of Twitch, the social livestreaming app, and Zoom – the video conferencing platform that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. It not only encourages subscribers to use a text-based chat service to communicate and share emojis but offers live camera and audio support. When there is a lull in the action, subscribers can switch to a personal communication experience by sharing their camera feed on the interface.
It is early days, but Watch Party is already adding value. Given that DAZN’s viewers have never been able to engage in social interactive behaviours on the app, any engagement through Watch Party is providing fresh audience insight. The challenge now is adding depth and scale. DAZN Watch Party needs to evolve beyond a service that unites small groups of subscribers to a vehicle that increases time spent for large groups of sports fans. This means radically expanding the user experience to create more touchpoints for engagement. Rightly, DAZN is using the smartphone as tool for interacting, amplifying, and delivering the call to action for the watch party experience. It took this step after quickly realising watch party interactions were too cumbersome when using a smart TV remote control.
Like Twitch and YouTube, DAZN has created moderator roles to police the social interactive experience for users. In an added twist, DAZN’s live moderators are also tasked with stoking engagement by encouraging behaviours that “keep the party going”. Whether it is prompting conversation with trivia questions, or launching polls that demand user input, these personalised hype men and women are there to elevate the content proposition and create an energized experience. It transforms watch parties from a social watch-along to an appointment-to-view experience. The next step will be bringing influencers into the fold who can add an extra layer of broadcast creativity by using social interactive behaviours generation Z expects. DAZN is well placed to extract value from the creator community given its track record of turning amateur influencer boxing – such as the KSI fights – into pay-per-view spectacles.
These steps are providing the building blocks for extracting even greater value from users in the future. DAZN’s Watch Party has the potential to align more closely to livestreaming by breaking down the fourth wall. This is already being done through Twitch’s Guest Star feature that allows streamers to instantaneously bring audience members into the broadcast to interact with the host if they have a strong camera and audio feed. Examples for DAZN could include allowing vetted watch party members to ask their favourite sports stars post-match questions over a video link. However, the true value will come from exploiting watch party’s monetisation opportunities. In time, DAZN will have the capacity to upsell digital and IRL merchandise to watch party users that are directly relevant to the teams or sports they follow. If treated sensitively, DAZN will be able to bring in live sports betting by offering watch party members live odds that they can select using their smartphone. Going forwards the DAZN watch party feature will provide numerous opportunities for the streaming service to diversify its revenue income away from its core subscriptions model in a way that also adds value to the user experience.
Roles
This report is relevant to the following roles:
Product Strategy