Major League Wrestling has signed a streaming deal with the American version of over-the-top sports streaming service DAZN, F4Wonline reported Tuesday.
Back in January, the league announced that it signed with major Hollywood agency ICM Partners and was in the market for a new TV and streaming deal.
DAZN already shows a number of American professional sports (including MLW) internationally, as well as Major League Baseball highlight shows, Bellator MMA and some boxing in the U.S. The British service launched in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Japan in 2016, in Canada in 2017, in the U.S. and Italy in 2018, and in Spain and Brazil in 2019.
The length and financial details of the new deal were not disclosed, according to the report.
MLW will continue to air “Fusion,” its leading show, on beIN Sports every Saturday, as well as on YouTube. The league will become part of DAZN’s regular weekly programming and be available on-demand, and when live action returns in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will air on the streaming network.
With the announcement, MLW becomes the first professional wrestling group available through DAZN’s American setup, according to F4Wonline’s report – the network did previously air some WWE content in Japan in 2017, however.
In November 2019, DAZN reportedly hit 8 million users, with 90 percent of those coming from outside the U.S. The service’s numbers are more than double those of ESPN+, which reached 3.5 million paid subscribers at the end its fourth quarter last year.