An attempt by Britain’s richest man, Sir Leonard Blavatnik, to conquer the sports TV market has racked up another year of heavy losses to reach an accumulated deficit of more than $3.7bn (£2.7bn).
In delayed accounts filed at Companies House, the streaming operator Dazn reported a pre-tax loss of $1.3bn for 2020 as the pandemic tore up sporting schedules around the world.
The figure would have been significantly worse had the company not been able to reduce its broadcasting rights bill by more than $500m in robust negotiations with sporting bodies.
In one dispute, Dazn is seeking $19.7m through the courts from the rights agency IMG, which has filed a counterclaim seeking $11.6m.
Mostly as a result of the smaller rights bill, Dazn’s losses were down on 2019’s figure of $2bn.
The venture, dubbed the “Netflix of sport” has accumulated billions in losses over six years, almost entirely funded by Sir Leonard.
He has been investing in its international expansion, including a recent failed bid to acquire BT Sport, in hope of wrestling control of live sport away from traditional pay-TV operators.
Dazn, which was beaten to a deal with BT by the US broadcaster Discovery despite placing a significantly higher valuation on the business, suffered a sharp slowdown in growth as the pandemic shut down many live events.
Revenues in 2020 climbed by just 6.4pc to $871.8m, having grown by 76pc the prior year. The company said growth improved in the second half of the year.
Sir Leonard, who was born in Ukraine and made billions from commodities after the break-up of the Soviet Union, agreed to a refinancing of the business at the end of last year that saw billions of loans converted to equity.
Dazn, pronounced “da zone”, has around 10m subscribers and just 5pc of its revenue comes from Britain. It shares the rights to broadcast Serie A in Italy with Sky Italia and broadcasts the English Premier League in Spain.
Last year, Dazn hired Kevin Mayer, the former Disney streaming and TikTok executive, as its chairman.
It has sold some of its non-streaming businesses including the football website Goal.com, which led to staff numbers falling in 2020.
It had 2,608 employees at the end of the year, down from 3,305 the year earlier.
