LeSports may spend US$400 million to win the three-year Premier League Hong Kong copyright

The word "Hong Kong" and the iconic pattern of the Premier League lion are not difficult to associate-outsiders predict that the poster implies that LeSports has won the Premier League rights in Hong Kong for the next three seasons.

"This time, it's about love, it's about fans! 922, see you in Hong Kong!" This is a message published by LeSports on September 14 on its official Weibo. In addition to the words "big trouble has occurred", the accompanying photo on Weibo is also printed with a lion pattern.

The trailer poster released by LeSports with

the word "Hong Kong" and the iconic symbol of the Premier League lion are not difficult to associate-outsiders predict that the poster implies that LeSports has won the Premier League copyright in Hong Kong for the next three seasons. This little suspense mystery will be revealed at a press conference held in Hong Kong on September 22.

The international copyright of the Premier League is sold on a three-season cycle. Currently, Hong Kong's PCCW (PCCW) owns the Hong Kong Premier League rights for three years between 2013 and 2016, and the contract will expire after the end of the 2015-2016 season. In early September, Hong Kong media released news saying that in addition to Netflix, Alibaba Sports and Wanda Group competing for new contracts for the next three years, LeSports, which has been booming recently, has also officially joined the competition.

Immediately afterwards, on September 8, the American media Sports Business Daily once again revealed the news that LeSports had successfully obtained the rights to the Premier League for three seasons starting from the 2016-2017 season. According to its report, the three-year contract is worth at least $400 million. At the same time, well-known business magazine Marketing also reported that the contract value was between US$400 million and US$600 million.

Between US$400 million and US$600 million, this is more than twice the PCCW contract-the three-year contract currently in execution amounts to only US$200 million. To this end, LeSports spent huge sums of money to seize the copyright of the Hong Kong Premier League, which caused a sensation in the local area. Although the specific amount of the new contract is still unknown, LeSports seems to have won the Hong Kong Premier League rights.

From the perspective of commercial value, Premier League copyright is the "most valuable" among the five major football leagues in Europe, far exceeding La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga. In China, the broadcast rights of the Premier League are independently divided into the mainland of China copyright, Hong Kong copyright, Taiwan copyright and Macau copyright. Affected by factors such as Hong Kong's former British colony, Premier League games have a huge group of loyal users in Hong Kong. In addition, pay TV in Hong Kong is quite mature and popular, and the region has always been an important position for Premier League commercial operations.

Over the past decade or so, Hong Kong's i-Cable and PCCW's Now TV have alternated in the rights to broadcast Premier League in Hong Kong. This time, after LeSports won the Premier League copyright, the heavily capitalized Internet company successfully "disrupted the situation."

In fact, LeSports has only been operating independently for a year and a half. It was originally a channel of LeTV and only officially divested its parent company in February last year. Since then, the company has purchased a large number of copyright resources for sports events in China. In terms of football, LeSports is the only media platform that owns the copyright of five major European leagues, including the Premier League, which is fiercely contested for copyright in China. Last year, LeSports announced that it had reached a cooperation with New England Sports to sign the Premier League's new media live broadcast rights in China. In addition, its resources also cover global popular events such as the Champions League, F1, NBA, Super League, NFL, NCAA, professional tennis and professional golf. With the successful acquisition of a large number of copyright resources, well-known commentators such as Dong Lu, Huang Jianxiang, Su Dong, Lou Jian and Liu Jianhong also joined the LeSports team.

In May this year, LeSports announced that it had completed the first round of financing totaling RMB 800 million, setting a record for the financing amount of China's sports industry. Among the leading investors are Wanda Investment and Yun Feng Fund, a subsidiary of Jack Ma. It is reported that LeSports 'financing is used to purchase more copyrights and expand the game's territory, and Premier League copyrights in Hong Kong are under the plan.

Obviously, LeSports hopes to expand its layout by mastering many high-quality event copyrights. In June this year, LeEco announced in Hong Kong that it plans to invest HK$6 billion in Hong Kong in the next three years to develop an Internet platform, including content copyright procurement, filming homemade online dramas and launching hardware products. Therefore, acquiring local Premier League rights is an important step for LeSports to expand the Hong Kong market.

In this competition for the copyright of the Hong Kong Premier League, there are also two domestic companies, Wanda Group and Alibaba Sports. Previously, Wanda Group had been making constant moves in the sports field and had a deep connection with the football field, so this move was not surprising at all. Alibaba Sports Group, which was just announced on September 8, announced that it had also entered the competition for the Hong Kong copyright of the Premier League. It can be seen that, like most sports industry giants, competing for copyright to football events that are scarce in the industry has also become Alibaba Sports's primary goal. However, if there is no accident, Wanda and Ali will return empty-handed in this competition.

In addition, the "big event" on September 22 may not stop there. On September 15, LeSports confirmed that well-known media personality Cheng Yizhong had joined LeSports as CEO of the Hong Kong company. Cheng Yizhong once participated in the founding of two iconic newspapers, Southern Metropolis Daily and Beijing News. In 2011, he moved to Hong Kong and served as a senior executive at Hong Kong's ATV and Sunshine International Media. LeSports is expanding in Hong Kong when they need a leader. A week later, Cheng Yizhong will attend LeSports 'press conference in his new identity.

Editor: yvonne