Online sports streaming platform DAZN have added another huge bundle to their growing portfolio of live sports content around the world, this time sealing exclusive rights to the Premier League in Canada thanks to a deal due to start in August ahead of the 2019/20 Premier League season.

The deal is reported to include all 380 live games, but the OTT sports provider will also screen on-demand match highlights as well as weekly preview and magazine shows. It means that DAZN will have the ability show four of European football’s so-called ‘top five’ leagues, as well as MLS which features Canadian sides.

This marks another big step forward for OTT distribution of live sport, especially given the global popularity of the Premier League. From next season, some of the league’s games will be broadcast on Amazon Prime in the UK, as well as on Eleven Sports in some territories like Taiwan, and even on Facebook in Southeast Asia, according to reports. The fact that the most popular league in the world will be distributed on OTT services is a sign of the spread of online streaming as a primary means of distribution.

It also raises questions about whether one of the big possibilities of OTT in sport will be the ability for rights holders like the Premier League – among others – to create their own direct to consumer platforms in order to cut out the middleman and sell directly to their millions of fans.

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