What impact will Letv’s EPL rights acquisition have on HK market?

Letv Sports have announced a three-year deal for the rights to broadcast the Premier League in Hong Kong at a press conference held on September 22. This is the first time that Letv is to ex-pand its presence outside mainland China since the IPTV operator started its fierce battle for broadcasting rights to top events. 

As a first step for Letv Sports in developing its business in Hong Kong, the acquisition of EPL rights will help the company to gain popularity, media and users resources quickly. 

At the same time, it will face great challenges from all corners when it marches into a brand new market which is dominated by cable TV networks. The way the sports business sector is run in  the Hong Kong market is completely different to the mainland China system in terms of rights distribution, content production and business cooperation models. In that context, how to culti-vate the market and guide the audience to adapt to the new business model and viewing experi-ence has become the must-do things that need to be solved urgently. 

Lei Zhenjian, CEO of Letv Sports, said their business development in Hong Kong will be divided into three phases but without mentioning the details as to what objectives they need to achieve in each phase and how to move forward in each phase. 

The Hong Kong audience love to watch professional sports, but the traditional communication mode, which mainly relies on TV broadcasting, is rather “passive” in terms of fan engagement. The announcement of EPL rights in Hong Kong is designed to create more fan interaction and implant some “active factors” into the Hong Kong football industry. 

When referring to the plans about how to make money from the rights deal, Mr. Lei said that the rights fee is a huge expenditure for Letv Sports, but the company will get returns on investment from paying subscribers, value-added services, derivative commodities and hardware sales. 

In addition, Letv Sports’s business scopes in Hong Kong will cover events organizing, marketing activities, and events tourism, which could be considered as a perfect duplicate of the “sports ecosystem” created by Letv Sports in mainland China.

Source: ifanr

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick.