LeSports paid members reach 1.5 million IP in 3 months, which is the key to membership growth

Three months after launching paid membership, LeSports announced that its membership has reached 1.5 million. At the same time, LeSports also chose to announce at the same time that it won the broadcast rights of Premier League events in 2016-2017.

Liu Jianhong is a little excited about the content system LeSports provides to members. During the interview, he picked up the remote control many times to show LeSports 'event interface. As the chief content officer, he felt that LeSports had delivered a good initial answer sheet.

Three months after launching paid membership, LeSports announced that its membership has reached 1.5 million. At the same time, LeSports also chose to announce at the same time that it won the broadcast rights of Premier League events in 2016-2017.

In fact, event IP is almost one of the most important factors affecting the growth of paid members. LeSports, which already owns more than 300 copyrights for 10000 events per year, also relies on the release of important IPs to attract members and guide them to pay.

"This year's Premier League is expected to bring an explosion to LeSports's membership." Sitting in the office on the third floor of LeTV Sports in Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road, Liu Jianhong told reporters.

In fact, as the upper reaches of the sports industry chain, each family spends a lot of money on IP, and competition has been heating up. Tencent bought the exclusive copyright of the NBA for five years for US$500 million; PPTV signed the exclusive copyright of La Liga for five years for 250 million euros, etc., while LeTV won heavily in IP for events such as the Super League, AFC Champions League, Wimbledon, and F1.

Regarding the model of sports payment, each party is still exploring.

After obtaining the copyright of the Premier League, New Ying Sports launched online payment packages for different image quality and service types, such as standard image quality of 118 yuan/season, etc.; Tencent is somewhat similar to LeSports 'model, charging membership fees based on the length of time; In addition, Tencent has also launched a per-event charging model.

As early as the 2007-2008 season, Tiansheng European Football Channel tried to charge an annual membership fee after obtaining exclusive broadcasting rights of the Premier League. It was a channel that started the charging model earlier in China, but it was eventually eliminated with a loss of 190 million yuan.

It should be said that after eight years of long wait and user education, sports payment has finally ushered in a ray of light.

IP is Wang Dao

Liu Jianhong believes that the growth rate of 1.5 million members within three months will benefit from LeSports's content system, namely the launch of multiple heavyweight IPs.

Before deciding to launch a paid membership business, LeSports had basic judgment and confidence in the paid market.

"Xinying used to pay for the Premier League and Tencent's NBA. The performance of these businesses makes us think that the conditions for payment are becoming more and more mature. The Internet user community is large enough, and the experience of payment habits and payment methods is also upgrading; the past perception that the Internet is free is gradually changing." Liu Jianhong told reporters.

Before entering the payment field, LeSports had signed multiple IPs. "Content is king, and LeTV's core IP is something sports fans like."

He introduced that in addition to the event itself, LeSports 'viewing effect also includes consultation and data; in the future, there will be competitions, shopping malls, interactions, etc. "For fans, watching a game while enjoying multiple services is equivalent to flying first class."

While announcing the Premier League IP, Liu Jianhong also said that LeSports 'super members can also enjoy 380 Premier League games and a large number of rights explained by Zhan Jun.

Another reason is the support of the LeEco ecosystem for sports members, and the promotion of hardware free days and member free days have had an important impact on member growth.

Among them, on April 14, LeTV Sports 'first sales day, with the help of its free hardware activities, sales of LeTV Super Sports members exceeded 330 million.

However, the cost invested in this cannot be ignored. In a sense, LeTV paid for some paid members for free, which is equivalent to "changing a vest."

Liu Jianhong believes that the early cost investment is necessary. Currently, LeSports's membership system is still in its infancy and requires a period of cultivation before it can enter the explosion period. The increase in the number of members is crucial to the development of LeSports in the next step. He revealed that with the promotion of ICC (International Champions Cup) and Premier League events, membership growth can be stimulated, of which Premier League games will have to be viewed through paid viewing.

ESPN (American Entertainment and Sports Television Network) is a pioneer in the field of event payment, with more than 10 million users. ESPN President John Skipper once said that two-thirds of its revenue comes from subscription payments and one-third comes from advertising.

Following this line of thought, Liu Jianhong said that if the number of paid members of LeSports increases to a large enough order, profits will not become a problem. Today, the income of members cannot constitute an important part of LeSports 'revenue, but in the long run, the possibility of profit can be seen.

However, subsequent development faces competition. Tencent announced earlier this year that it would become ESPN's only content export in China, which is a pressure that cannot be ignored for LeTV.

As the upstream of the industrial chain, IP directly corresponds to a wide range of sports users, but the IP monetization capabilities of the entire industry are still limited.

In terms of monetization, Liu Jianhong said that in addition to members, the event itself also has huge profit space.

Taking the upcoming ICC as an example, Liu Jianhong revealed that this event broke even last year and will be profitable this year. Among them, the revenue from ticketing alone is about to reach the break-even point.

As the exclusive new media partner in the mainland of China, the WRC (World Rally Championship) launched in June is one of the models with clear profits and large space in LeTV's sports event copyright.

Sun Xiaodong, general manager of LeSports Racing Division, told reporters that in addition to sponsorship from individual industries, including team sponsorship and various activities, services, venues, etc. implemented in China, all have benefits; local consumption generated by racing will also generate a large number of business opportunities.

The various possibilities of the industrial chain

are centered on events. Opening up the upstream and downstream industrial chains and integrating the membership system into them is an important topic.

Take the ICC as an example. The content of the event itself can generate value. The three ICC teams: Manchester United, Manchester City and Dortmund all have their own fan effects. LeSports 'offline activities on site, including tickets, shopping and watching services, can lengthen the entire event.

In this system, ticket sales and member sales will be bundled together, and events will be used to promote members.

Liu Jianhong introduced that the cost of an event includes the team's appearance and reception fees; venue rental fees; broadcast fees; event service fees, etc. Revenue includes venue advertising, ticket advertising, online and offline activity revenue, sponsorship, etc. In addition, the intangible benefit is to allow more users to understand LeSports and become members.

On the basis of events, it is also a learning to maintain the continuous growth of the number of users. Regarding this area, Liu Jianhong believes that relying on the LeEco ecosystem, it is necessary to provide members with diverse services.

Clarity is one of the issues that sports fans are currently concerned about. According to data provided by LeTV, the current clarity of watching events on LeTV Sports is 1080P, which is relatively leading in the industry. Liu Jianhong said that the definition will be improved in the future and strive to achieve 4K definition. In terms of content, in addition to the event itself, sports documentaries, physical education teaching, and shopping malls have all been added to the content system.

But at present, the content that LeSports can provide mainly relies on LeTV hardware. Regarding future plans, Liu Jianhong revealed that he is negotiating with multiple channels such as Smart TV to seek LeTV Sports APP implantation.

In terms of the form of cooperation, the early cultivation period will vary depending on different cases, but in the end, it will all enter the payment model.

In addition to the event itself, the operation of offline venues and the use of VR technology will become additional service contents.

As video websites, each family is exploring new ways to play in terms of membership systems. For example, iQiyi launched a four-level membership model in early July, while LeEco currently divides members according to different Timeline. However, as the payers of various businesses, members can only continuously provide high-quality content, which is the main driving force for increasing their stickiness.

With the continuous introduction of policies related to the sports industry, the sports industry has continued to heat up in China in recent years. Under the dividends, the number of players of all types in the domestic sports industry has gradually increased. LeTV, which has an early layout in the sports field, has become the darling of capital and has currently received 8 billion yuan in Series B financing.

Although LeEco has attracted the attention of capital, if it wants to retain more users, LeEco still needs to maintain the ability to provide and output high-quality content.

LeTV did not receive exclusive rights to broadcast the 2016-2017 Premier League rights. It is reported that copyright cooperation between PPTV and the Premier League is also under negotiation. This seems to cause some resistance to stimulating users 'motivation to pay.

However, LeSports does not seem to be worried. A LeSports employee told reporters that the clarity and viewing experience LeSports can provide are beyond doubt for users. Although it is not exclusive, it will not affect users 'final choice of LeSports.

Editor: Nancy