The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
In 1975, Kundera moved to France where The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was published in 1979.[13] An unusual mixture of novel, short story collection, and authorial musings which came to characterize his works in exile, the book dealt with how Czechs opposed the Communist regime in various ways. Critics noted that the Czechoslovakia Kundera portrays "is, thanks to the latest political redefinitions, no longer precisely there," which is the "kind of disappearance and reappearance" Kundera ironically explores in the book.[34]
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Czech and French novelist (1929–2023)
Milan Kundera ( KU(U)N-dər-ə;[1][2] Czech: [ˈmɪlan ˈkundɛra] ⓘ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.[3]
Kundera's best-known work is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the country's ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia banned his books. He led a low-profile life and rarely spoke to the media.[4] He was thought to be a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature and was also a nominee for other awards.[5][6]
Kundera was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1985, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987, and the Herder Prize in 2000. In 2021, he received the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.[7]
Diversification of DAZN platform & continued expansion (2022–present)
In 2022, DAZN began diversifying its platform beyond sports streaming to include a range of other sports entertainment, including the sale of tickets and merchandise, sports non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming and betting.[100][101]
DAZN Moments launched on 24 March 2022, however, DAZN would later published a notice on their dedicated website stating that the service would be terminated on 30 November 2023, with no further purchases or sales available. DAZN Moments would no longer be held by customers after 14 March 2024.[102] DAZN's NFTs launched in tandem with the Canelo Álvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders fight reportedly failed to generate a profit.[103]
In April 2022, DAZN launched "DAZN Bet" in the UK and signed a strategic partnership with Pragmatic Group to develop its sports betting product.[104] Shay Segev, Dazn CEO, said: "The convergence of sports media and betting is the future.”[105]
In May 2022, DAZN signed a deal to carry Red Bull TV, including live and on-demand content.[106] That same month, DAZN signed a four-event deal with KSI's Misfits Boxing, carrying cards under the branding "MF & DAZN: X Series".[107]
In June 2022, DAZN announced a global broadcasting deal with British boxer Anthony Joshua, beginning with his 20 August rematch against Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia. The deal was reported to be valued at £100 million per-year, with Joshua also becoming a brand ambassador for DAZN.[108]
In July 2022, Segev stated that there were plans to add more interactive features to the platform, such as "watch parties", alternative broadcasts of events, and sports betting integration.[109]
In August 2022, DAZN and Misfits Boxing launched "MF & DAZN: X Series", which is a series of crossover boxing events that have influencers and celebrities complete in the boxing ring.[110]
In September 2022, DAZN announced that it would acquire sports broadcaster Eleven Group, expanding its position in parts of Asia and Europe, and in global sports streaming rights and technologies.[111][112] The acquisition was later finalized in February 2023.[113] Details of the acquisition were included in DAZN Group's published accounts, stating that Eleven was acquired on a share-only basis, while £35m in funding was provided to Eleven subject to an annual interest rate of 14%.[114]
In 2022, the company launched DAZN Store in Germany, its online e-commerce platform for fan merchandise.[115] That same year, DAZN reported revenues of $2.3 billion, over 70% increase from 2021, making it the highest grossing sports app in the world.[116]
In January 2023, DAZN signed a five-year deal with Misfits Boxing, and a multi-year agreement with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) to carry its programming in 42 Asian and European territories.[117] In February 2023, DAZN announced that it had acquired the global rights to the NFL's Game Pass service outside of the U.S. and China under a 10-year deal beginning in the 2023 NFL season; it will be sold as a standalone subscription service on the DAZN platform.[118][119]
In January 2023, DAZN and Amazon agreed a global distribution deal for DAZN’s streaming service on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.[120]
In March 2023, DAZN Chairman Kevin A. Mayer two-year term came to an end.[121] That month, DAZN also launched the DAZN 1 channel on Sky in the UK and Ireland.[122]
In May 2023, DAZN launched two new global FAST channels, DAZN Combat and DAZN Women’s Football, which will be available globally through LG, Samsung TV Plus and VIDAA.[123] In July 2023 DAZN announced a partnership with DAIMANI to launch an integrated ticketing product for DAZN subscribers.[124] The same month, it also launched in Belgium, Portugal, and Taiwan, transitioning from former Eleven Sports services.[125]
In August 2023, it was announced DAZN had acquired US-based women’s football streaming platform ATA Football.[126] DAZN also launched in France, with the company reaching a sub-licensing agreement with Canal+ to stream weekly Ligue 1 fixtures on the service, and offer carriage of a DAZN 1 linear channel for Canal+ customers.[127] DAZN also announced a five-year partnership with U.S. sports merchandise retailer Fanatics, Inc.[128]
In October 2024, DAZN reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, giving it exclusive rights (co-exclusive within the MENA region) to Riyadh Season events, and international rights outside of MENA for its slate of boxing events.[129] The agreement came amid rumours that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) was seeking to acquire a stake in DAZN;[129] the PIF stated that it "has no current plans to invest in the company".[130]
In November 2024, DAZN entered talks with News Corp Australia to potentially purchase its 65% shareholding in Australian pay television operator Foxtel.[131]
US expansion, combat sports launch and corporate restructure (2018)
In May 2018, DAZN announced its expansion into the United States and the signing of a broadcasting deal with Matchroom Boxing.[42] The deal with Matchroom was signed for an initial two years with the option for a six-year extension.[42] Matchroom’s Chairman, Eddie Hearn, said that the deal was a "groundbreaking deal in the history of boxing".[43][44]
In the same month, former ESPN president John Skipper joined as executive chairman of Perform Group.[45] He later became the first chief executive officer of DAZN.[46]
In June 2018, DAZN announced a five-year streaming rights deal with the Viacom-owned mixed martial arts promotion Bellator and included the U.S. and all other regions currently served by DAZN. The rights include seven exclusive events per-year, as well as all events televised by Paramount Network.[47][48]
DAZN officially launched in the U.S. in September 2018, ahead of its first boxing event of Anthony Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin on 22 September. Its launch content also included the World Boxing Super Series, as well as the AFC Champions League, the Chilean Primera Division, J-League and other content.[49][50] DAZN's broadcast team for its U.S. boxing events is led by "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Brian Kenny on play-by-play, with LZ Granderson as ringside reporter, and Michael Buffer as ring announcer. Buffer appeared in a U.S. marketing campaign for the service, contrasting its business model to pay-per-views.[51][52]
In September 2018, DAZN's parent company Perform Group underwent a reorganization, with its sports data business spun into a second company known as Perform Content (which was later sold to Vista Equity Partners and merged with STATS LLC in 2019 to form Stats Perform, and its consumer properties (including DAZN itself, as well as several co-owned sports news websites) retained as DAZN Group and was later reported that this was in preparation for a potential sale of the latter in order to help fund the DAZN operations.[53][54][55]
In October 2018, DAZN announced that it had signed a five-year, 11-fight deal with Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez valued at a minimum of $365 million, beginning with his then-upcoming bout against Rocky Fielding in December for the WBA super middleweight title. Álvarez was previously aligned with HBO, which had announced that it would discontinue boxing broadcasts. The contract overtook Giancarlo Stanton's $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins as the highest-valued contract with a single athlete in sport known at the time.[56][57][58][59]
In November 2018, Major League Baseball announced a three-year content partnership with DAZN, which includes on-demand highlights, and ChangeUp—a live nightly studio program featuring look-ins and analysis.[60][61] Just before the start of the 2020 season, DAZN cancelled MLB-related programming due to financial stresses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[62]
In December 2018, DAZN was estimated to be worth £3 billion: it was described by the Evening Standard as one of the United Kingdom's few tech "unicorns".[63]
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DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British over-the-top sports streaming and entertainment platform.[2] Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is owned by Access Industries, the investment group founded by Sir Len Blavatnik, and is headquartered in London, England.[3] Shay Segev is DAZN's CEO as of January 2021.[4] The non-executive directors are Lincoln Benet, John Gleasure and Guillaume D’Hauteville.[5]
The DAZN platform was founded in 2015 and broadcasts live and on-demand sport in over 200 countries worldwide with a strong domestic presence in Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, France, Portugal, Belgium, Taiwan, the United States and Canada, where it has key domestic broadcast rights.[6] It is considered to be Europe's largest digital sports broadcaster with over 75 programming rights.[7][8][9][10] As of 2023, the service has 20 million paid subscribers globally.[6]
Outside of streaming, DAZN has since expanded into in-play betting, gaming, e-commerce, merchandise and ticketing with being originally involved in content distribution, subscription, advertising and sponsorship, and technology and production and also owns a significant minority stake in the leading football portal Goal after TPG's Integrated Media Company (IMC) acquired a majority stake in 2020.[6]
Writing style and philosophy
François Ricard suggested that Kundera conceived his fiction with regard to the overall body of his work, rather than limiting his ideas to the scope of just one novel at a time, his themes and meta-themes traversing his entire œuvre. Each new book manifests the latest stage of his personal philosophy. Some of these meta-themes include exile, identity, life beyond the border (beyond love, beyond art, beyond seriousness), history as a continual return, and the pleasure of a less "important" life.[40][verification needed]
Many of Kundera's characters seem to develop as expositions of one of these themes at the expense of their full humanity. Specifics in regard to the characters tend to be rather vague. Often, more than one main character is used in a novel; Kundera may have even completely discontinued a character, resuming the plot with somebody new. As he told Philip Roth in an interview in The Village Voice: "Intimate life [is] understood as one's personal secret, as something valuable, inviolable, the basis of one's originality".[41]
Kundera's early novels explore the dual tragic and comic aspects of totalitarianism. He did not view his works, however, as political commentary. "The condemnation of totalitarianism doesn't deserve a novel", he said. According to the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, "What he finds interesting is the similarity between totalitarianism and the immemorial and fascinating dream of a harmonious society where private life and public life form but one unity and all are united around one will and one faith". In exploring the dark humour of this topic, Kundera seems deeply influenced by Franz Kafka.[28]
Kundera considered himself a writer without a message. In Sixty-three Words, a chapter in The Art of the Novel, Kundera tells of a Scandinavian publisher who hesitated to publish The Farewell Party because of its apparent anti-abortion message. Not only was the publisher wrong about the existence of such a message, Kundera explained, but, "I was delighted with the misunderstanding. I had succeeded as a novelist. I succeeded in maintaining the moral ambiguity of the situation. I had kept faith with the essence of the novel as an art: irony. And irony doesn't give a damn about messages!".[42]
Kundera also ventured often into musical matters, analyzing Czech folk music for example; or quoting from Leoš Janáček and Bartók; or placing musical excerpts into the text, as in The Joke;[43] or discussing Schoenberg and atonality.[44]
The Festival of Insignificance
The 2014 novel focuses on the musings of four male friends living in Paris who discuss their relationships with women and the existential predicament confronting individuals in the world, among other things. The novel received generally negative reviews. Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times describes the book as being a "knowing, pre-emptive joke about its own superficiality".[38] A review in the Economist stated that the book was "sadly let down by a tone of breezy satire that can feel forced".[39]
Early life and education
Milan Kundera was born on 1 April 1929 at Purkyňova 6 (6 Purkyně Street) in Královo Pole, a district of Brno, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic), to a middle-class family. His father, Ludvík Kundera (1891–1971), was an important Czech musicologist and pianist who served as the head of the Janáček Music Academy in Brno from 1948 to 1961.[8][9][10] His mother Milada Kunderová (born Janošíková)[11] was an educator.[10] His father died in 1971, and his mother in 1975.[10]
Kundera learned to play the piano from his father and later studied musicology and musical composition. Musicological influences, references and notation can be found throughout his work. Kundera was a cousin of Czech writer and translator Ludvík Kundera.[12] In his youth, having been supported by his father in his musical education, he was testing his abilities as a composer.[13][14] One of his teachers at the time was Pavel Haas.[15] His approach to music was eventually dampened due to his father not being able to launch a piano career for insisting on playing the music of modernist Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg.[14]
At the age of eighteen, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1947.[16] In 1984, he recalled that "Communism captivated me as much as Stravinsky, Picasso and Surrealism."[17]
He attended lectures on music and composition at the Charles University in Prague but soon moved to the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) to study film.[18] In 1950, he was expelled from the party.[13] After graduating, the Film Faculty appointed Kundera a lecturer in world literature in 1952.[19] Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he lost his job at the Film Faculty.[20] In 1956, Kundera also married for the first time, the operetta singer Olga Haas, the daughter of the composer and his teacher Pavel Haas and the doctor of Russian origin Sonia Jakobson, the first wife of Roman Jakobson.[21][22]
Availability and access
The DAZN platform is available in over 200 countries globally.[9] DAZN is available on most connected devices including digital media players, mobile apps, smart TVs, and PC.[132][120]
DAZN is available as an Amazon Channel for Amazon Prime subscribers,.[120][122]
In September 2019, Comcast reached a deal with DAZN to offer an app for the service its Xfinity X1 cable boxes, becoming the first U.S. television provider to offer support for the service within their platform.[133]
The opening weekend of the J.League on DAZN saw multiple issues including buffering and other technical problems. Founder James Rushton would travel to Japan to make an in-person apology.[134][135]
The Canadian launch was met with technical issues, including inconsistent stream qualities, buffering, and latency between the streams and television broadcasts.[136][137] DAZN apologized for the "inadequate service" that it delivered and said it was working to rectify them.[136][137] As a result, DAZN began to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to television providers in October 2017, as had been the case before.[137]
DAZN's broadcast of the Canelo Álvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs boxing fight on 4 May 2019 received numerous complaints for its streaming quality and claims of bias from the commentators.[138]
In Spain, Orange S.A. sought a settlement after DAZN's technical failures prevented both the transmission of La Liga matches to Orange and Movistar; together with incurring additional infrastructure costs. [139]
In September 2021, Italian consumer group Codacons threatened a class action lawsuit against DAZN to revoke its broadcasting rights for Serie A football, after complaints of service blackouts. Italian telecommunications regulator AGCOM and the country's antitrust body opened investigations into the service. Italian undersecretary for sport Valentina Vezzali said: "We are monitoring the situation so that everything can be resolved for the benefit of the users, who are the ones who want to see their teams on television and cheer for their favorite team."[140]
DAZN continued to suffer technical issues during the season opening day of Serie A in August 2022, and was condemned by multiple Italian politicians and Italy's consumer protection organization Udicon. AGCOM also intervened, leading to DAZN issuing an apology, and offering compensations to affected customers.[141]
In January 2023, DAZN agreed to take urgent steps to improve its service in Italy, after its executives were called to a meeting with Italian government ministers Adolfo Urso and Andrea Abodi.[142]
DAZN has been accused of unethical business conduct.
In 2023, their monthly subscription was advertised at $19.99/month, however, subscribers were locked into a 12-month contract (The details of which are disclosed in the fine print), and were not allowed to cancel until the end of the 12 months. The monthly subscription plan, called "Flexible Pass" and priced at $24.99/month, required 30 days notice in-advance of cancellation. The service would otherwise continue for another 30 days from when the user cancels, and the user would be charged on a pro-rate basis for excess time beyond the billing cycle. Only the yearly subscription would cancel at the end of the billing cycle regardless of when the user unsubscribes.[143]
DAZN was sued by the German Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (VZBV) over the alleged use of non-transparent contract clauses that allowed DAZN to make excessive contractual changes, including price adjustments. The Munich I Regional Court largely agreed with the VZBV, upholding many of the complaints.[144]
