ESPN Sublicenses Out U.S. College Football & Basketball Rights To DAZN For Selected Territories In Europe & MENA

While Disney has been working hard to acquire as much live sports for its ESPN brand on streaming services around the world, today, it’s been announced that Disney has done a multi-year deal with DAZN to sublicense out live rights to a wide range of U.S. college football and basketball content.

This deal covers a number of countries across selected territories in Europe and the MENA region, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, DACH (football only), Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, the MENA region (Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine (inclusive of all naming), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen), Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria, Philippines.

From the 2025 season, DAZN subscribers will be able to enjoy up to 25 college football games per week during the regular season only on DAZN, including the biggest matchups from top-tier conferences, such as the SEC, ACC, and Big 12. Moreover, DAZN’s offering will include the complete College Football Playoff and CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T, as well as all other major bowl games. DAZN will also bring the iconic College GameDay pregame show to fans every Saturday, along with making a range of on-demand football content available on the platform.

Significantly expanding its U.S. basketball offering, DAZN will broadcast approximately 20 games per week across men’s and women’s basketball, as well as 63 March Madness games across both the Men’s and Women’s tournaments, including the entirety of the Elite Eight, Final Four and National Championship.

The new U.S. college football and basketball content will be available to all DAZN users in selected territories in Europe and MENA, free-to-view for a limited time.

The addition of an extensive range of U.S. college football and basketball content strengthens DAZN’s growing proposition of U.S. sports available to fans internationally, extending beyond NFL Game Pass (excl. China, U.S.) and NHL.TV (excl. U.S., Canada, and the Nordics).

Shay Segev, DAZN Group CEO, said in a statement:

“DAZN is committed to bringing the best possible entertainment experience and a comprehensive portfolio of thrilling U.S. college football and basketball content to fans in selected territories in Europe and MENA. Working with ESPN, this agreement allows DAZN to expand its global offering of premium North American sports properties, extending beyond NFL Game Pass and NHL.TV. It also means DAZN can broaden access to exciting U.S. sports content and support top-tier leagues in growing their international fanbases.”

Diego Londono, SVP Networks & Sports EMEA at The Walt Disney Company, added:

“We are excited to team up with DAZN to serve sports fans across Europe during the upcoming NCAA Football and Basketball seasons. Through this agreement, fans will be able to watch some of the most competitive matchups throughout the regular season, highlighted by marquee events such as the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I Basketball Tournaments, as well as the College Football Bowl Games and Playoff.”

Roger’s Take: This is an interesting step forward for ESPN, as while it’s been building up its hub on Disney+ in many regions, including the United States, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand, in the other areas of the world, including Europe, Asia and the Middle East, ESPN is still not a major hub on Disney+. Up until recently, all the signs pointed to Disney potentially launching an ESPN hub in the region following deals for local sports such as LALIGA football in the UK.

This sublicensing deal would seem to indicate that Disney has decided to license out some sports coverage rather than offer it to Disney+ subscribers. This could be because it feels Disney+ subscribers in Europe and the Middle East aren’t hugely interested in American college sports, and they’d rather get some additional licensing fees.

Yet, it also feels like a move that doesn’t fit with the expansion of ESPN globally. Maybe Disney is holding off on relaunching ESPN in Europe and the Middle East for a while, or this is a stopgap to give audiences content for the 2025 season (and technically, since the season covers 2025 and 2026, it’s technically multi-year.  There is also no mention of the word “Exclusive” anywhere in the press release, so perhaps they could share the coverage. Either way, it appears that US college sports won’t be available on Disney+ in the Middle East and Europe anytime soon.

What do you think of this deal? Let me know on social media!