Premier League Announces Termination Of Chinese Broadcast Deal With PPTV
September 3, 2020
The Premier League has today announced the termination of its Chinese media deal with PPTV.
According to the BBC, PPTV’s deal to broadcast the competition in China was the most expensive of any foreign broadcaster.
PPTV, owned by Suning (who hold the majority stake in Serie A side Inter Milan), have reportedly failed to pay the Premier League a figure of £160million they had been expected to pay in March of this year.
In an abrupt statement, the Premier League posted on Twitter: “The Premier League confirms that it has today terminated its agreements for #PL coverage in China with its licensee in that territory. The #PL will not be commenting further on the matter at this stage.”
The league will now be in a race against time to try and find a new channel willing to take up the media rights in a new deal, with just nine days until the competition resumes, meaning a large chunk of Premier League fans across the country will not be able to view the start of the season.
This could be complicated further by some political tension occurring between the two countries, with the US, one of the UK’s major allies, also suffering from similar consequences.
