Barclays Premier League announced that Chinese broadcaster Super Sports Media Group has been awarded the exclusive LIVE audio visual broadcast rights for all EPL matches per season for seasons 2013/14-2018/19 in mainland China and Macau.
According to C21Media, this deal was made as part of a US$1billion sale of foreign rights. Super Sports has been broadcasting LIVE EPL matches for the last two years and has now extended its partnership through to 2019. The games will be broadcasted on 21 channels across China. Sports Pro Media reported that while financial terms have not been disclosed, the deal is worth significantly more than the US$50million Super Sports had been paying annually.
“The main reason for agreeing a six-year partnership with Super Sports is our recognition of their innovative and successful business model and that their coverage and reach makes our matches available to fans in all provinces across mainland China and Macau,” said Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore.
While Super Sports Group celebrates their win, TrueVisions lost their bid to Cable Thai Holdings (CTH) in Thailand. On November 15, CTH was awarded the LIVE broadcast rights for all EPL matches for seasons 2013/14 – 2015/16 in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
The CEO of TrueVisions, Suphachai Chearavanont, has apologised to subscribers for the disappointment in not being able to watch EPL matches after the end of the 2012-2013 season in May next year. TrueVision Subscribers will still be able to enjoy other sports programmes and many other entertainment, documentaries, and knowledge programmes as before. TrueVisions will allocate additional budget to acquire and develop sports, entertainment, and knowledge content as well as HD channels as compensation for its subscribers.
Chearavanont added that TrueVisions will adjust its business strategy to not rely on EPL content for the sustainability of the business in the long run.
“CTH has an excellent reputation as a high quality broadcaster and we look forward to working with them as they deliver a premium offering that will showcase the Barclays Premier League to our fans in all three countries” commented the Premiere League’s Scudamore.
