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After a successful 12 year win-win partnership with CBA, Infront Sports & Media have started priority renewal negotiations with the Chinese Basketball Association and CBA League (Beijing) Sports Co., Ltd before the former agreement expires at the end of March. According to the current contract, Infront can start priority negotiation rights on any renewal issues 3 months prior to contract talks and also have priority competitor counter offer rights, enabling itself to quote prices to counteract any competitor offer.

The CBA and Infront signed a 12-year-long cooperation agreement in May 2005, adopting a 7+5 year model, in which the CBA had to renegotiate with Infront after the first 7 years. Infront has to give the CBA a fixed annual sum of at least US$6.5m. Once it turns a profit, Infront has to pay the majority of this profit to CBA, leaving Infront with a 15%-22% return. In fact, Infront became profitable around 2010, and successfully signed a 5-year 336m RMB extension agreement with the CBA outbidding multiple rival bids. 

Infront now operates in 25 types of sports, has 20 of the world’s top sports events and has a sporting calendar of over 4,000 days annually. 

Philip Blatter, the Group President & CEO of Infront, said: “we will take full advantage of available resources to operate CBA, the top sports contest in China and Asia, and we believe it will lead in the sport industry.”

Source: Sohu Sports

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick