Broadcast right available on market? It is still a long way to go

After the release of Sports Reform Plan, the copyright officially is on the market for the very first time. “The broadcast rights, except for Olympic Games, Asian Games and FIFA World Cup, are available to all TV channels.”

Under that circumstance, competitive negotiation of China Team was held in Beijing, which means the copyright reform is stepping forward, but still to be continued.

On the negotiation, 4 packages are included, namely Public signal service, broadcast right for matches of China Team in China, broadcast right of matches for new media in China and all media rights overseas. The competition of broadcast right for matches of China Team in China, broadcast right of matches for new media in China is relatively fierce. More than ten competitors attended the auction intentionally for that.

As is known generally, revenues earned by selling broadcasting rights are the main income for the professional clubs. In the most of cases, about 60-70% of total revenue comes form that. On the contrary, the money from TV rights is little. The income from broadcast for CSL is nearly 70 million RMB while for Premier League, the number is more than 45 billion RMB. However, we have to point out that, in a long period before, the TV rights are free, the club even have to pay TV channels for broadcast.

TV rights available to sell, it is still a long way to go. The main reasons are below:

Firstly,All the TV rights are in the control of CCTV for a long time, it hardly is changed by the reform plan. Most of the local channels still rely on CCTV for rights.

Secondly, New media is not mature enough yet in China. Although new media is slowly stepping on the throne, it is still the very first time for new media share the cake of broadcast rights. How the new media and TV channels work together and maximize the benefits? It is still a problem.

Thirdly, for the media, gaining the TV rights is merely the first step. The new media is supposed to innovate their way through. That would probably cost longer time.

Chinese First League signed with Tianjin Youshida this January. Youshida is entitle with the title and broadcast right. The new deal would influence China football in a good way.