China's Suning to pay $650m for Premier League TV rights
A Chinese conglomerate has won the rights to broadcast the English Premier League in China for three years, it said Friday, with reports putting the deal's value at $650 million.
A Chinese conglomerate has won the rights to broadcast the English Premier League in China for three years, it said Friday, with reports putting the deal's value at $650 million.
The contract would represent a huge uplift on the previous contract as Chinese money pours into football, including major investments in England, and businesses rush to support President Xi Jinping's national footballing ambitions.
Not confirmed
"The feedback that the board of the English Premier League gave us is that we have won the bid" to broadcast the English Premier League from 2019 to 2022, a spokesman for Suning Holdings's PPTV unit told AFP.
The exclusive media rights cover mainland China and its special administrative region Macau, a Suning spokeswoman said, adding they still have paperwork to sign before making an official announcement.
PPTV is an online streaming platform under the sports arm of the Suning Holdings company, which paid 270 million euros (then $306 million) in June for a majority stake of Inter Milan.
Record signings
It also owns Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning, which twice broke the Asian transfer record this year to sign Ramires from Chelsea for 28 million euros and Shakhtar Donetsk's Alex Teixeira for 50 million euros.
The three-year TV rights were worth more than $650 million, Bloomberg News reported, marking a 12-fold increase on the current contract due to intense competition for the rights.
Friday's announcement by PPTV came soon after the start of a new Premier League television rights cycle, which has generated some £8.3 billion ($10 billion) worldwide through 2019.
Investment in the Premier League
In the United States, leading terrestrial television network NBC signed a $1 billion six-year deal for the American rights through to 2022.
PPTV's entry into the Premier League broadcast rights market follows huge Chinese investment into English football clubs of more than £500 million ($668 million) since December 2015.