2015 in review: the sports business in China (I)

2015 has been a prominent and fruitful year for Chinese sports development with a series of giant business deals and huge investments emerging over the 12 months. All the signs indicate that China’s influence in the global sports market is growing by the day. Now we will look back at some of the year’s headline-making news in the Chinese sports industry.

Broadcasting rights

March

Ti’ao Power won the bidding for the rights to broadcast China national football teams for an estimated 50 million yuan 

June

LeTV Sports signed an exclusive cooperation deal with the Amaury Sports Organisation to pick up the broadcast rights for the Tour de France.

July

Chinese internet operators Sina and Tencent and digital media company LeTV Sports secured digital broadcast rights to the English Premier League for the 2015-16 season.

August 

LeTV Sports, Sina Sports PPTV Sports and Tencent Sports announced the signing of a partnership deals with Union of European Football Association (UEFA) under which the four sports-rights ventures have acquired rights for a number of UEFA properties in China.

September

Ti’ao Power won the bidding for the production and broadcasting rights of the Chinese Super League from 2016 to 2020, for a fee of RMB8 billion (US$125.52 million) , almost 20 times increase on its current broadcast fee.

Letv Sports announced that they had sealed a 3-year deal for the rights to broadcast the Premier League in Hong Kong from the 2016/2017 season, making it the first rights deal outside of the Chinese mainland.

November

Le Sports and the ATP announced a landmark digital partnership deal. Under the deal, the Chinese online streamer will become official online video partner and platinum partner of the ATP World Tour, as well as the end-of-season Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, for the next five years.

December

PPTV Sports, one of the leading online sports streaming platforms in China, reportedly agreed a 5-year deal with UFC for its new digital media rights in Mainland China.

Sponsorship

January

On 3 January, China Football Association officially announced that Nike had replaced Adidas as the new sponsor of the Chinese national football teams for the next 10 years with more than RMB100 million each year.

March

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei signed a sponsorship deal with Wolfsburg to provide a range of best-in-class Wi-Fi access services for the club’s Volkswagen Arena.

Real Madrid and the electric car manufacturer Luyuan presented their new sponsorship contract in China. It is Real’s first sponsorship arrangement with a Chinese company.

April 

The Chinese nutrition brand Kingdomway announced that it would become a sponsor of the top two divisions of Spanish league soccer in Asia.

July

Evergrande Spring agreed a regional sponsorship deal with Bundesliga giants Byaern Munich.

August

Dutch Eredivisie football club Ajax signed a three-year partnership deal with bicycle and scooter tyre manufacturer Cheng Shin Tire (CST).

September

NBA China announced that it had inked sponsorship deals with a total of 15 different brands this year already.

October

ZTE, a leading Chinese smartphone maker announced that it had become a Smartphone Partner of the NBA sides Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers.

November

Infront Sports & Media, the exclusive marketing partner of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) announced that Tissot, the exclusive Swiss watch manufacturer, would be the new official timepiece of the CBA. This according to a press release from PR Newswire.

December

Alibaba announced that its “internet car” brand Alibaba E-Auto will become the exclusive presenting partner of the FIFA Club World Cup after signing an eight-year partnership deal with soccer’s governing body FIFA.

Chinese online streaming company Le Sports announced on December 16 that it had obtained naming rights for Beijing’s iconic Wukesong Arena in a five-year deal signed with the venue owner, Bloomage International Investment Group.

Proofread by John Devlin