Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang makes big bet on paid content
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www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2015-10-29 17:19:29
Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang is paying a record-breaking $1.3bn for the five-year broadcast rights to China’s football league, in a big bet that young people will pay for content on mobile devices and the beautiful game will become big business on the mainland.
The Rmb8bn ($1.3bn) deal he agreed after seeing off state broadcaster CCTV and other competitors is a huge leap from the Rmb50m per year that is currently being paid to show a league whose top clubs are attracting investment from tycoons including Alibaba’s Jack Ma.
But it is still way behind the $2.6bn per year that Sky and British Telecom are paying for the rights for England’s Premier League, the world’s most watched domestic league.
Having recently set up a Chinese film studio with Warner Brothers and agreed to bring Legoland to Shanghai, Mr Li said his China Media Capital had more international sporting acquisitions in its sights as well as other entertainment deals.
“At the moment we are reviewing many opportunities, some of them quite high-profile,” he said. “We just try to figure out a China angle which means we can bring those leagues or expertise of operating those leagues back to China.”
“Probably you have heard the rumours in the market about Formula One,” the CMC chairman said with a laugh. “I cannot comment at the moment.”
Mr Li is hoping to ride a football revolution in China that is being pushed by President Xi Jinping, whom he accompanied on a trip to Manchester City football club during his recent state visit to the United Kingdom.
But Chinese tycoons have rushed to invest in football at home and abroad to ingratiate themselves with President Xi, who has released a national plan to transform China’s footballing reputation.
In 2014 Mr Ma’s Alibaba bought half of China’s best club, Guangzhou Evergrande, which is managed by former Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and has recruited a series of Brazilian star players.
Speaking at a media conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Mr Li said that while Chinese viewers do not have a history of paying for premium content, mobile broadcasting was “the best solution for the paid model” because young people were much more focused on getting a “good user experience”.