Impossible goal? Startup to stream soccer to Net-wary Italians

FILE PHOTO: New Napoli's coach Carlo Ancelotti gestures during a training session in Dimaro, northern Italy July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/File Photo

MILAN (Reuters) - Sports-streaming start-up DAZN has an ambitious business goal in Italy: sign up 3-5 million customers, as many as the country's largest pay-TV group, in a market with one of the worst broadband take-up rates in Europe.

DAZN, whose British parent Perform Group is backed by billionaire investor Leonard Blavatnik, starts streaming Italy's top soccer league to home fans this month, having paid 600 million euros (£534.3 million) for the rights to show almost a third of Serie A matches for three years.