Can Letv Sports catch up with ESPN?

Letv Sports, China’s leading online sports video-streaming company, raised roughly $128 million in the first round of funding a couple of weeks ago.

The entity was estimated to reach value at $400 million after the completion of the funding.

Letv has evolved from a Web page on Leshi’s platform in 2012 to a separate entity streaming a variety of live sporting events, which covers football, basketball, tennis, golf etc.

More specifically, Letv Sports presents the biggest football leagues including English Barclays Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1. In the meanwhile, the broadcaster has the right to display NCAA basketball games. Additionally, F 1 races and tennis tournaments are also concluded in Letv Sports’ broadcasting list.

In last year’s campaign, Letv sports has broadcast a total of 4,000 sports matches with exclusive rights of 75 events. Some argued that Letv sports seals sports rights as though they are collecting coins. But undoubtedly it is rather money consuming to present live sports in such manner. What are the consequences of the Letv Sports’ enthusiasm to occupy such an important position among sports broadcasters in China?

The conclusion cannot be drawn at the minute. But staff of Letv Sports have revealed the ambition of the company, which is to catch up with or even compete with ESPN in the coming years.

Letv’s efforts in grabbing deals of sports rights have followed the example of ESPN which has secures over a half of the live broadcasting rights of Olympics Games. Therefore, it triggers questions that will Levt Sports potentially reach the height of ESPN in sports broadcast sphere one day.

Letv sports has significantly enhanced the presence as a sports events provider with a range of rights of major sports competitions, which are key parts of strategies undertaken by Letv Sports. But it also faces strong challenges from other online giants, such as Tencent which has beaten the former on the run of bidding for NBA rights in China. This has heavily struck Letv’s ambition in dominating core sports events rights.

Accordingly, we cannot exactly tell where the promising sports provider will be heading after losing the battle to secure the plate of basketball which is as crucial as the likes Premier League and UEFA Champions league anyhow.

Source:CBNweekly