DAZN stems the decline in audience proportions, but there is no reversal of direction. The ratings also go down on matchday number 16 of the Serie A Championship. In which, (between Friday 13th and Monday 16th December) it was even able to benefit from the free-to-air broadcast of the sumptuous 6-0 postponement win by Inter over Lazio . An eagerly awaited competition which, however, brought home a lower audience than a year ago. Another fact. DAZN also shared co-exclusively with Sky (and NOW) the traditional three matches foreseen by the TV rights agreements: Empoli and Turin, Juventus Venice and Como-Rome, with the last two certainly eroding an audience share. In this sense, the listening performances highlight this. It is no coincidence that Juventus, which is usually among the teams with the largest following, despite the exciting match with Venezia on the streamer brought home “only” just over 500 thousand fans.
Lazio-Inter wins in ratings, but does less than last championship
But let’s move on to the data of the 10 matches broadcast by the streaming platform which – let us remember – has acquired the exclusive rights to next summer’s Club World Cup. On matchday 16 of Serie A, according to Auditel surveys, the main match was logically the postponed Lazio-Inter with 1,347,412 users in front of the screens.
The big match certainly benefited from the free-to-air broadcast. The initiative likely resulted in increased advertising revenue for DAZN. But it didn’t “split” in terms of audience. Indeed, the same match a year ago had involved (and they were only season ticket holders) as many as 1 million and 421 thousand fans. In short, as happened on the occasion of Milan-Napoli, the “viewer grab” operation didn’t work. In second place was the match between Milan and Genoa (974,641), while Udinese-Napoli closed the podium with 745,763 viewers. Black jersey instead for Parma-Verona with 36,357 connected users. It should be noted that there were 17,000 at the Tardini stadium… In total, the matches broadcast on DAZN attracted 5,210,511 viewers. Adding the 143,358 users who followed the ZONA DAZN program, the total audience reached was 5,353,869 viewers. Compared to the same day last year, this is a decrease of 642,320 users.
DAZN: lost 14 million viewers in 16 days
Extending the overall analysis to the audience of this first part of the championship for DAZN, the numbers do not add up when compared with the same reference period of the 2023/2023 season. Overall, the appeal for the streaming platform is missing 14 million viewers with an increasingly accentuated downward trend. The average drop per day amounts to 875 thousand users. By projecting the negative trend for the remaining 22 rounds of Serie A (in a thoughtful and confident manner), the risk is that at the end of the season the decline in audience amounts to between 20 and 25 million viewers if not more. The hope, starting with the top clubs and the League, is that this trend can turn in a positive direction. It won’t be easy.
