Belgian football fans can finally exhale. After days of confusion, legal manoeuvring and public backlash, streaming platform DAZN confirmed it will broadcast all Jupiler Pro League matches this weekend. The announcement averts what would have been an unprecedented blackout of Belgium’s top football division.
The crisis erupted earlier this week when DAZN abruptly terminated its multi-year contract with the Pro League. The platform claimed an “untenable financial situation” and invoked Belgian law to justify an immediate break in the deal worth around half a billion euros.
League officials said they were blindsided. Pro League CEO Lorin Parys condemned the unilateral move as “completely unreasonable,” stressing that the five-year agreement was designed to provide financial stability and predictability to clubs already preparing future budgets.
At the heart of the collapse lies DAZN’s failure to secure distribution deals with major Belgian telecom providers, including Proximus and Telenet. The Pro League argues these partnerships were a fundamental condition of the rights agreement and essential to guaranteeing widespread access for supporters.
In response, the league filed an urgent request for arbitration with the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation. The Pro League is seeking a ruling that forces DAZN to fulfil its broadcasting obligations until a final decision is issued—something that could take several weeks.
DAZN, for its part, stated Thursday evening it had already offered to continue broadcasting all matches until the season ends. The platform emphasised that the temporary continuation “does not affect the legal position of either party,” signalling that the commercial fight is far from over.
Meanwhile, political pressure is growing. Federal Minister for Consumer Protection Rob Beenders launched an official investigation into DAZN on Thursday. He accused the company of lacking transparency toward subscribers who, for weeks, have faced uncertainty over whether they would still be able to watch matches they paid for.
“Supporters deserve honest and transparent information,” Beenders said. “The persistent uncertainty is causing legitimate concern.” He added that his office requested clarity from DAZN about the remainder of the season but had not received a definitive answer at the time.
Before Thursday’s confirmation, Belgium was staring at the real possibility of a weekend without televised football. The blackout would not only have affected fans at home but also VAR operations, which rely heavily on broadcast camera feeds.
Without DAZN’s infrastructure, referees would have been restricted to fixed stadium cameras, allowing only basic offside reviews—an unprecedented technological setback for the Pro League.
For now, that disaster has been avoided. DAZN aired the opening fixture of matchday 16, Mechelen vs Standard de Liège, and will continue through the weekend. But the underlying issues remain unresolved and the financial implications for both sides could be enormous.
With emergency arbitration in motion, a consumer-protection investigation underway, and a multi-million-euro rights contract hanging in limbo, Belgium’s football broadcasting landscape faces a turbulent stretch. Fans may have been spared immediate disruption, but the stability of future match coverage remains anything but guaranteed.
