August 3 – England’s Premier League, and Spain’s LaLiga have both announced new deals in China suggesting that there may be a thawing in football relationships with the country that has pretty much closed its doors to outside football influence.
The Premier League looks set to return to state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for the first time since 2020, with two live game this weekend.
In 2020 the two clashed over political tensions in the country, seeing matches withdrawn from CCTV. Now reports are that CCTV is scheduling Premier League matches on its CCTV5 channel.
In 2020, the Premier League also terminated a £523 million deal with PP Sports following missed rights payments. That deal was not replaced until the Premier League agreed to license streaming platform IQiyi Sports until the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Premier League mobile rights in China are with China Mobile’s streaming subsidiary Migu.
LaLiga streams
While the Premier League looks to have stuck with selling rights to broadcast partners in the market, LaLiga has taken a different approach, opting for a live streaming solution.
The Spanish league has announced a six-year strategic partnership with Beijing-based Streamline Media Technology, officially launching the LaLiga live streaming application in China: LaLiga Plus.
The DTC Exclusive Brand Dedicated Application solution, LaLiga Plus, will start this season with the app offering different packages to the fans through a freemium model combining free and paid matches.
All 380 LaLiga Santander matches will be availableand for the first time in China, while all 462 matches and promotion play-offs of LaLiga Smartbank will also be available.
LaLiga is the first among the major leagues to have a DTC solution in the country.
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