LeSports seized Hong Kong market and won exclusive copyright in Hong Kong Premier League for the first time

On September 22, LeEco held a press conference in Hong Kong to announce that LeEco Sports had obtained exclusive rights to Hong Kong Premier League broadcasts for the three seasons from 2016 to 2019. In the next 11 months, the Hong Kong Premier League will completely bid farewell to "wired" and enter the world's first "infinite Premier League" era dominated by Internet companies.

in this regard. LeEco told reporters that this press conference means that the LeEco ecosystem through the vertically integrated "content + platform + terminal + application" has been successfully replicated in the Hong Kong market, and Hong Kong will become a bridgehead for LeEco's globalization. At the same time, the company also announced that LeSports will officially land in Hong Kong from September 22.

On the same day, Mo Cuitian, vice president of LeEco Holdings and executive president of Asia Pacific, told the 21st Century Business Report that LeEco came to Hong Kong in August 2014. "2015 was the darkest (stage) in the TV industry. LeTV also realized that pure live TV would go downhill, but LeTV started shooting Hong Kong's first 4K series. Because after 10 years of exploring the video ecosystem model, LeTV now regards integrating Hong Kong culture as its top priority for LeTV's ecological globalization. We don't want to be LeTV's Hong Kong brand, we want to be LeTV in Hong Kong."

Regarding the reasons for choosing to enter the Hong Kong market at this time, LeSports CEO Lei Zhenjian said that the sports business was established in March last year. The reason why the case came to Hong Kong was that Hong Kong has a mature sports consumer market and a traditional sports industry model. Relatively speaking, the mainland market is "immature", so choosing Hong Kong, which is closest to the mainland, to try to develop sports business has become a necessary choice for LeTV.

It is worth noting that Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore also participated in the conference. Richard Scudamore said: "As a traditional and mature Premier League market, Hong Kong has a large proportion of fans and strong spending power. It is typical that the Premier League and LeSports can reach a cooperation in Hong Kong, which will become the first Premier League market dominated by an Internet company in the world. We look forward to the perfect integration of the Hong Kong Premier League and LeTV sports ecosystem, bringing Hong Kong fans the most wonderful experience in the Premier League."

When talking about cooperation, well-known media person Cheng Yizhong bluntly said: "For the first time in the 2016-17 season, some Premier League live broadcasts with 4K definition will be brought to Hong Kong fans. It will use LeECloud's 600 CDN nodes and 10T bandwidth all over the world to meet fans 'rigid demand for timely and smooth live broadcasts."

"In addition to its technical advantages, LeSports will also provide users with a richer game viewing experience through multiple signals, multiple games, multiple terminals, multilingual explanations, and multiple interactions. In addition, LeSports will also allow users to further experience and participate in the football culture of the Premier League through various forms such as organizing events, market activities, and watching tours." Cheng Yizhong revealed.

According to LeEco, winning the copyright of the Hong Kong Premier League from competitors for the next three years and launching new super mobile phones and super TVs in Hong Kong are copies of LeEco's vertically integrated "content + platform + terminal + application" ecological model in Hong Kong. Among them, Premier League exclusive copyright represents content, while super mobile phones and super TVs represent terminals that connect content, platforms and applications.

At the same time, LeEco officials stated that LeEco's purchase of Hong Kong Premier League rights and its entry into the Hong Kong market are based on the judgment of trends and the needs of the times. According to previous reports, on May 13 this year, LeSports announced that it had completed its first round of financing at a valuation of 2.8 billion yuan, with a financing amount of 800 million yuan. This round of financing is divided into two stages: Round A and Round A+. Round A is led by Wang Jianlin's Wanda Investment, Round A+ is led by Yun Feng Fund, a subsidiary of Jack Ma, and Seven institutions and individuals including Kan Zhidong's Dongfang Huifu and Wang Sicong's Pusi Investment followed the investment. After this round of financing, the shares of LeTV, the original controlling shareholder of LeSports, fell to about 10%, and Lele Interactive (the same actual controller) became the controlling shareholder.

Editor: vian