J.League in FTA partnership extension covering third tier with DAZN

Japanese men’s soccer’s J.League structure has extended its domestic broadcasting rights deal with streaming service heavyweight DAZN, covering the third-tier J3 League, until 2025.

This comes on top of the existing deal between the two parties, which covers the top two leagues in the country and runs until 2033, having been struck last year.

The partnership addition means all action from the third tier of men’s Japanese soccer will continue to be shown on DAZN through the upcoming 2024 season after the previous tie-up for that competition ended in March last year.

DAZN Freemium, which launches in Japan today, will show a selection of J3 League games live.

Manabu Yamada, executive vice president of DAZN Japan, has said: “We are very pleased that with this agreement, customers will be able to watch all official games of the Meiji Yasuda J League on DAZN until the 2025 season. We believe that this partnership will not be possible without mutual success. We will continue to work hard to ensure that above all else, the fans can enjoy the J.League.”

In its partnership extension covering the J1 and J2 leagues last year, DAZN said the two parties would “work on measures to bring the [third-tier] J3 League to as many people as possible to expand its fanbase.”

DAZN has domestically covered Japanese men’s domestic soccer since 2017, the year after the service first launched in that market.

The DAZN free tier, meanwhile, will entail registered users gaining access to a selection of live matches from DAZN’s portfolio of rights, including top-tier domestic soccer leagues in Japan (J.League), Spain (LaLIga) and (Italy Serie A), pan-European soccer’s UEFA Women’s Champions League, American football’s NFL, the Professional Fighters League mixed martial arts promotion and boxing events.

The freemium service launched in Germany by the end of this month before launching globally in early 2024, with the service hoping to capture new subscribers on the back of trying out the free service.

Users will also be able to consume non-live content including documentaries and highlights, as well as DAZN’s integrated products and services such as news, data, and statistics, free-top-play games and quizzes, betting, and podcasts.