The sports car manufacturer also wants to live up to its claim to luxury when it comes to infotainment.
Stuttgart Watching a football game in the car – with the available on-board equipment, this was previously only possible via the car radio. That could soon change at Porsche: The pay-TV and sports streaming service Dazn should then also be available in the sports car manufacturer’s on-board infotainment system. Dazn had made a corresponding cooperation public in the course of the Champions League final last weekend and published it on the career network LinkedIn. The VW software unit Cariad is also said to be working on the implementation.
However, both partners are still keeping a low profile on the details of the new cooperation. When asked by Handelsblatt, Dazn explained that the cooperation was “still in its infancy”; Porsche confirmed that they are in talks with several partners in the infotainment sector, including Dazn. Concrete partnerships are to be announced at a later date.
Dazn is majority owned by British-Ukrainian billionaire Leonard Blavatnik and his conglomerate Access Industries. In Germany, the streaming service is best known because some games in the Bundesliga are exclusively available there. The streaming service has been broadcasting all Friday and Sunday games in the Bundesliga since 2021, a total of 106 games. Most Uefa Champions League games are also shown on Dazn.
First Netflix, now Dazn: Porsche is turning the car into a second living room
With the new partnership, Porsche is following a trend. Because the networked car is to become the second living room for customers in the future. At the presentation of the new Cayenne, Porsche already announced that the US streaming service Netflix would also be available on the large screens of the SUV in the future. The service is even available to the front passenger while driving. The driver can watch content during breaks. It should be similar with the Dazn integration.
It is likely that the application will also be available in the new Macan, the top-of-the-line electric model. This also explains why Porsche is currently still reluctant to make a specific announcement. The car is scheduled to come onto the market in 2024 and will run on the new software architecture 1.2, which is also used by Audi and developed at Cariad.
The streaming service wants to be receivable on as many devices as possible – in the future also in the car.
(Photo: IMAGO/Beautiful Sports)
The VW software subsidiary will launch a group-wide app store in July. In the case of the premium brand Audi, the app store is to be integrated first. Other Group brands will then follow in succession. The store should also be part of the infotainment system in the new 1.2 software. Other brands could also benefit from the Dazn deal via the App Store.
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Because the sports streaming service would fit well into the portfolio of existing partner apps at VW. The store’s first partners include streaming and entertainment services such as Spotify, Tiktok and Amazon Music. At the beginning of June, Cariad also announced a cooperation with the video conferencing service Webex. In addition to entertainment, it should also be possible to work in VW Group cars in the future.
More partnerships under VW and Porsche boss Oliver Blume
Unlike his predecessor Herbert Diess, CEO Oliver Blume, who also manages Porsche, relies much more on partnerships and cooperation in the software sector. While the rigid goal was once to develop 60 percent of all applications in-house, the approach under Blume’s management is much more pragmatic.
To put it simply, everything that is decisive for the functionality and safety of the vehicle on the software side should be the responsibility of the group, brands and the Cariad software unit. For everything else, the group also wants to work with partners.
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Cariad itself will examine in the coming weeks and months where strategic partnerships make sense and where not. Blume recently replaced almost the entire board of the software unit. The new Cariad boss Peter Bosch has only been in office since June 1st.
Recently, Porsche had often played a leading role in the VW Group when it came to technology partnerships. The Intel subsidiary Mobileye wants to produce driver assistance systems in the field of automated driving in the future with the sports car manufacturer. In principle, the deal is also open to other VW brands, but was explicitly announced as a Porsche deal.
It had also become public in January that the sports car manufacturer Porsche could also integrate applications from the search engine group Google into its infotainment systems. Here, too, Porsche would be a pioneer. In the spring, Mercedes-Benz announced a comprehensive Google cooperation in infotainment, which has since been considered groundbreaking in the German automotive industry. So you can definitely be curious about the further announcements at a later date.
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